“I didn’t think for a moment.”
From boxing champion to everyday hero, there is only one step.
Monterelais Kemal Altinpinar is proof of this.
This high-level athlete has just been saluted by the mayor of Montereau and the prefect of Seine-et-Marne for the act of bravery he demonstrated on November 14.
That day, he saved an octogenarian by climbing a balcony and pulling him out of the smoke in his apartment.
It was 5 a.m. when the boxer was suddenly awakened by the cries of a neighbor: “He was shouting:
There’s fire!
We have to get out, quickly!
“, he remembers.
Kemal Altinpinar and his partner grab their two children and quickly exit the three-story building.
“Outside, we noticed that one of our neighbors was missing and that thick black smoke was coming from his apartment.
He is an 80-year-old man who lives alone,” he explains.
The athlete does not ask any questions and once again enters the burned building.
When he opens the fire door which separates the corridor from the entrance to the apartment, he finds that it is impossible to enter.
The smoke is too thick.
“There was no way I was going to leave him.
I came out.
Hassan Ammarkhodja, a neighbor, gave me the short ladder and I went through the balcony,” explains Kemal Altinpinar.
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He tears off the plastic roller shutter and pushes in the bay window.
“I was in complete darkness, I bent down and searched on the ground.
I found him passed out.”
At the last minute, he manages to extricate the old man from the apartment, shortly before the firefighters arrive.
He saved his life.
“The doctors told me that without my intervention he probably would not have survived.”
Soon decorated with the city medal
Touched by the boxer's burst of bravery, the mayor of Montereau, James Chéron (UDI), sent him a letter to congratulate him.
“Following the courageous intervention of Mr. Kemal Altinpinar and Mr. Hassan Ammarkhodja who helped save a resident overwhelmed by smoke, I proposed to the prefect to honor them and I am happy that he acceded to this request.
I am proud of our two local heroes who will soon be decorated with the city medal,” he assures.
In 2019, the boxer was elected “Monterelais of the year” to salute his incredible sporting career.
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Courage, composure, sporting qualities which allowed Kemal Altinpinar to carry out this heroic act.
The man - who does not wish to reveal his age - of Turkish origin was born in Ankara.
He has more than twenty years of career as a professional boxer.
Specializing in muay-thai, this Thai combat discipline, he has competed in the biggest rings around the world.
Vice world champion in kickboxing in 2016 in Frankfurt, he became WBL-WKL world champion in Thai boxing in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in 2021. In 2022, he won the title of European kickboxing champion -boxing, in his country of origin, in Istanbul, Turkey.
For two years, he has been giving lessons in the Richelieu room in Montereau where he trains children from the age of six.
“I don’t consider myself a hero but if my act can inspire others, that makes me happy,” he concludes.