On July 22, 1975, a fire broke out at an apartment block in Marlborough Street, Boston. The tillerman of the first Boston Fire Department ladder company to arrive at the scene, Robert O'Neill, climbed onto the roof of the building and saw 19-year-old Diana Bryant and her two-year-old goddaughter Tiare Jones standing on the fire escape. O'Neill asked Bryant to lift Jones to him, but as she was unable to do so he jumped down to assist the pair. O'Neill had one arm around Bryant and one hand on a r