On 22nd July 1975, as Forman was about to leave the office at Boston Herald, he got a call about a fire incident and immediately hurried to the scene following one of the firefighter trucks.
On arriving at the scene, Forman immediately rushed to the back of the building, which was already heavily engulfed with fire; there, he saw Diana Bryant hanging on with her 22-year-old goddaughter. They had both been hanging by an already weakened position.
Diana Bryant was only nineteen years alongside her goddaughter was only two years old. They had been entrapped in the building as the fire began and were patiently waiting for the firefighters to rescue them as the exits had been covered with fire, leaving no exit route.
As a result of the heat, they were both at the edge of the building where the fire had not engulfed yet. Forman then positioned to capture what he would term “an impending routine rescue” in his own words.
They both waited while firefighter Robert O’Neill who was the first firefighter to arrive at the scene got up the roof of the apartment. The apartment was located in Boston, at Marlborough street.
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However, while on the roof, Robert O’Neill asked 19-year-old Bryant to hand over her two-year-old goddaughter Jones to him, but she was unable to do this, prompting Robert O’Neill to come down. With one arm over Bryant and the other holding into the ladder.
However, things went south quickly, it was now that the escape they held onto broke down causing a tragic fall for the two. While Robert O’Neill was able to get a grip on the ladder, Bryant and her goddaughter fell off the holding. Falling from exactly 50 feet, onto the hard ground, Bryant suffered multiple head injuries. Jones, her goddaughter, however, suffered little injuries as she had a soft landing on Bryant. Joe Green, a helicopter pilot wiving reports on the traffic situation, suggested picking up Bryant and Jones but was left without response from the firefighters.
Forman had taken his position to capture the event of the moment he saw everything happen; he admitted that it occurred to him a perfect moment had become a turn of event. He said, “It dawned on me what was happening, and I didn’t want to see them hit the ground. I can still remember turning around and shaking”.
He mentioned he was not strong-willed to see when Bryant and Jones hit the ground as they also fell behind a fence where the bins were.
The police then got an arrest warrant for Fred Durham, the owner of the building, for housing an unlicensed lodging house.
The photograph went on to win the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography as well as World Press Photo of the Year. It was first published in the Boston Herald and then in newspapers around the world; however, it was welcomed with harsh comments and backlash.
