This photo, taken by Stanley Forman in 1975, shows 2-year-old Tiare Jones and 19-year-old Diana Bryant falling from a 5th-floor fire escape after it collapsed during a fire.
Diana died, but Tiare survived as Diana’s body cushioned her fall. The photo later won a Pulitzer Prize.
The photo, taken by Stanley Forman, was part of a series that documented the entire incident. Forman was about to leave the Boston Herald offices for the day when they received a call about a fire in one of the older sections of Victorian row houses in the city. He hurried to the scene and followed one of the fire engines. The photo was captured with a motorized camera and also shows potted plants falling.
When the first fire engine arrived at the scene, the tillerman Robert O’Neill asked Bryant to pass the toddler, Jones, to him on the roof. Bryant struggled, so O’Neill jumped down to assist before the ladder could reach them. O’Neill had one arm around Bryant and one hand on a ladder rung when the fire escape collapsed. He managed to hang on with one hand and was eventually rescued.
The photograph had a significant impact beyond its initial publication. Originally featured in the Boston Herald American, it was subsequently published in over 100 newspapers and led to the implementation of new fire escape regulations in the United States.