Thai fireman dresses as
Spiderman to rescue boy
Spiderman to the
rescue!
A Thai firefighter put on a
Spiderman costume to rescue a superhero-loving autistic boy who
climbed onto a third-floor balcony and dangled his legs over the
side because he was nervous on his first day of school.
Somchai Yoosabai was called in
after the 11-year-old boy's teachers and mother failed to coax him
off the ledge on Monday, he said in a telephone interview
Wednesday.
"He was nervous about the first
day at school, and he was asking for his mother," Somchai said. "He
cried and refused to let any of us get close to him."
Overhearing a conversation between
the boy's mother and his teachers about his love for comics and
superheros, Somchai rushed back to the fire station to change into
a Spiderman costume before swinging into action.
"I told him Spiderman is here to
save you. No monster will hurt you now," Somchai said. "Then I told
him to walk slowly toward me. I was very nervous that he might have
slipped if he got too excited and ran."
Somchai, who keeps costume of
Spiderman and a Japanese superhero Ultraman to liven up fire drills
at schools, said the teary-eyed boy broke into a smile and started
walking into his arms.
The fictional hero was created by
comic-writer Stan Lee in the early 1960s. The character regained
its popularity in recent years thanks to the trilogy of Hollywood
films starring Tobey McGuire and Kirsten Dunst.
