Heroic teenagers save baby and mother from blaze

Majid Gotte, Yacine Chouidira and Samir Hamidi have become national heroes in France.

The media has been full of praise over the weekend for the calm heroics of the three teenagers who came to the rescue of a mother and her baby trapped inside a burning apartment.

But in spite of their new-found fame, the trio remain humble, according to the regional newspaper, Le Progrès, and are even somewhat reticent to admit they are heroes of any sort in interviews with local and national television, radio and press.

Majid Gotte reunited with two-year-old Assia, TF1 news screen shot

The drama occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning in the town of Tarare, 42 kilometres to the northwest of the city of Lyon.

As Le Progrès reports, Majid Gotte, Yacine Chouidira, both 18 years old and Samir Hamidi, 17 , were walking home after having attended a concert in the town, when they noticed smoke coming out of a third-floor window of a block of apartments.

The trio acted quickly, calling the emergency services before entering the building themselves to warn sleeping residents that there was the likelihood of a fire in one of the apartments and it might be a good idea get out as soon as possible.

When Majid, reached the third floor he knocked on the door of one of the apartments and encountered Khalida Zoubiri, who had been burnt while trying to put out the fire in her flat.

The 27-year-old told him that her two-year-old-daughter Assia was asleep in her bedroom and flames had prevented her from entering.

"I hesitated at first," he told TF1 prime time news. "But as soon as the mother told me that her daughter was in the other room, I knew that I had to do something."

And that "something" was to enter the room in spite of the flames and smoke, and carry the child out wrapped in a blanket.

Once Majid had brought Assia to safety, he then re-entered the apartment to help the mother.

By the time the fire service had arrived almost all the residents had been evacuated and there was no doubt as far as one of the police officers on duty was concerned that the quick thinking of Majid and his friends had been instrumental in making the job of the emergency services easier..

"They reacted very fast and the building was virtually evacuated by the time fire fighters arrived," Eric Denis, a police officer who was one of the first on the scene told Le Progres.

"Getting people out of the building was very important as it helped the fire fighters get on with the job of putting out the flames when they arrived," he continued.

"What they did was commendable, remarkable and courageous, especially as they didn't know any of the people," he added.

Assia and Majid were taken to a nearby hospital and kept in overnight for observations before being allowed home.

Zoubiri, is still in hospital being treated for second-degree burns.

While praise has been unanimous for what the trio did, and especially for their ability to remain calm and level-headed, they have remained rather modest.

"We did the same as we would do for our own families," Samir told Le Progrès.

"We just acted on instinct because there was nothing else to do."

For Majid, what happened also showed that France's youth is capable of more than the "delinquent" image it's often accorded.

"It shows that there's more to adolescents in France than hooliganism and petty crime," he said.

"They can also do things that help, and that's something we talk about less often."