On a Sunday morning in February 1959, a four-year-old named Adeola Ornitiri fell against the oil stove her family used to heat their Paddington flat. The appliance toppled over, spilling burning oil across the floor where she and her three siblings were playing.

Her mother bundled them out of the room and into the hallway. She ran upstairs to get a bucket of water, but the flames spread too fast, and the blazing staircase cut her off as she came back down. Her husband managed to get through the fire, and together they made it to an adjoining third-floor rooftop. Mrs Ornitiri gripped her husband’s arms as he lowered her over the edge.

He let go, and she dropped twenty-five feet to neighbors who were waiting to catch her. Then Mr Ornitiri jumped, shattering his heel upon landing.