History Main / BurningBuildingRescue

A newly super-powered person sees a burning building on TV. He realizes that he can do something to save the people on the top floor. He rushes to the scene and performs the daring rescue. It usually happens at the close of the [[ThreeActStructure First Act]] of a SuperHero's origin story. In the beginning of the Second Act, and sometimes even the next scene, the hero will have donned his signature costume.

The superhero version is a turning point, so it doesn't apply to rescue personnel performing their already chosen profession, like firefighters or police. Similarly, established superheroes doing this as a matter of course don't count. The heroic decision has to happen onscreen for it to be a part of this trope.

Although the title of this trope refers to a burning building, it could easily be any other sort of natural disaster or accident. At this point in the story, though, there will not be any archvillains yet. In fact, it's conspicuous in deconstructive settings if it ''is'' a burning building; the magnitude of the primary hazards of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflagration conflagration]], namely smoke inhalation and heat, are generally underplayed in media.

This is a subtrope of the CallToAdventure and HeroicFireRescue, and what often follows for the {{Super Hero}}es is an OnPatrolMontage. If a character does this and is not a superhero, then they are showing their heroic nature via a HeroicFireRescue and belong there instead.
----
!!Examples:

[[AC: Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', a skeptical Light tests the titular notebook on a criminal holding the children in a nursery school hostage. When the criminal drops dead, and the children are freed, Light is shocked. He later tests the note for a second time on a thug harassing a woman outside a shop. Of course, after this, Light ditches the heroics and starts systematically killing criminals.
* Played straight in ''ShamanKing'', where Yoh smashes the water tanks on the roof of a burning restaurant with the help of Amidamaru.
* Parodied on ''SayonaraZetsubouSensei'': otaku student Manseibashi's house is on fire and his little sister is trapped inside. The boy dashes back in -- to save a body pillow and some anime/game stuff. In in the interim, his sister is rescued by firefighters. When Manseibashi emerges, his mom immediately slaps him.
* {{Doraemon}} once gives Nobita SpiderMan-like powers. Cue a lady trapped in a burning building.
* Slight variation in setting in ''{{Heroman}}''. Joey first tests out the titular robot by rescuing a friend and her father from a car collision site.
* ''TigerAndBunny'' plays this straight with one tweak: instead of the burning offshore drilling platform inspiring Blue Rose to take up superheroics, it dissuades her from giving them up.

[[AC: Comic Books]]
* Happens in ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' when Daniel Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk first don their costumes - Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II - after several years of not wearing them. Almost as soon as they do, they hear of a burning apartment building and take Dan's Owlship (Archie) out to rescue them.
* ''[[TheAstoundingWolfMan Wolf-Man's]]'' first act as a hero was this.
* The Christopher Reeve version of ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' had him saving people from a variety of accidents at the beginning of the second act.
* In a superb ''CaptainAtom'' Christmas story, the Captain, newly resigned from the military where he was ordered to be a [[TheMole Mole]] in the Justice League, finds out about a burning warehouse full of homeless people. He intervenes to save the day and finds that he likes being a superhero for its own sake and resolves to continue as such on his own.
* Used in a variation in ''BoosterGold'', in which Booster pulls out a elevator car full of people from a burning building and because of the smoke no one can see who he is and everyone is wondering who had saved them. The decision is that Booster consciously decided not to go down and let them know who had saved them, with out being guilted into it. A change from the beginning of the series.
* In ''ComicBook/AllFallDown'', Siphon performs one of these in the course of her duties... [[spoiler:moments before she's arrested for Super-Manslaughter.]]

[[AC: Fan Fiction]]
* The first story in the ''[[GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Night Life in the Big Easy]]'' campaign was a BurningBuildingRescue.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' Fan fiction virtual series, ''The Gargoyles Saga'' story, "Turncoat," the editors decided to create a definitive event that would turn the Manhattan Clan's public image around before the public antipathy would have to be ossified into permanent bigotry. Namely, there is a large hotel fire and the Clan helps out the Fire Department while the Quarrymen's bigoted attempts to interfere get exposed on national TV news.

[[AC: Film]]
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the first ''{{Film/Spider-Man}}'' film: Green Goblin sets a building on fire to draw in {{Spider-Man}}, then disguises himself as an old lady to get Spidey to rescue him. He's crazy enough to know that a hero can't deny an old lady in danger.
** This trope is inverted in the second film. Peter (after losing his powers) rushes to the scene of a burning apartment building, and rescues a small girl (almost losing his life in the process). He then discovers that there were more people on an upper floor that perished due to the fire. He doesn't regain his powers for a few scenes afterwards.
* An aversion: In the movie ''Film/{{Jumper}}'', the teleporting DesignatedHero [[spoiler:passively watches a bunch of drowning people on TV before heading off to the nightclub]].
* Subverted in ''TheIncredibles''. Mr. Incredible and Frozone are retired superheroes, and only go into the burning building because they want to relive the glory days.
** Only Mr. Incredible. [[SamuelLJackson Frozone]] [[DidntWantAnAdventure wanted to go bowling]].
* The comedy film ''Hero At Large'' features a burning building rescue at the climax, but a robbery earlier in the film is the {{Burning Building Rescue}}.
* Both the [[{{ComicBook/Kick-Ass}} comic]] and the [[Film/{{Kick-Ass}} movie]] of ''Kick-Ass'' feature a literal BurningBuildingRescue as Kick-Ass and Red Mist's first task as a duo.
** Not sure about the comic, but the movie is more of a subversion. Kick-Ass clearly doesn't intend to go into the building and wants to just call the fire department instead, only going in when Red Mist rushes in first. Also, everyone in the building is already dead, and for an entirely different reason. Finally, everyone in the building was there specifically to capture and kill Kick-Ass anyway.
* David Dunn's battle with the Maintenance Man serves as his BurningBuildingRescue in ''{{Unbreakable}}''.

[[AC: Literature]]
* In the ''IncarnationsOfImmortality'' series, Death performs one of these to save a child's life.
* In the Discworld novel ''ReaperMan'', Death is retired (but still mostly invulnerable). When he sees a little girl trapped in a burning basement, he says "While, for Death, this is normal, for Bill Door, [not interfering] is a load of horse pockey." He then runs into the burning basement and protects the girl, despite the whiskey in the basement exploding.

[[AC: Live Action TV]]
* Variation in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', where Claire, in the first episode, runs into a burning train.
** And in the online comics, Nathan Petrelli flies into a burning building to rescue someone.

[[AC: WebOriginal]]
* WhateleyUniverse: the variation occurs with Phase in his origin novel "Ayla and the Late Trevor James Goodkind". He runs in to rescue his sister and ends up having to deal with an entire burning street and a flame-throwing supervillainess. He also finds out that having a supersuit with groin protection would be a really good idea for more than one reason.
** As of "Ayla and the Mad Scientist", this appears to be the backstory for Bladedancer's new roommate [=THE CRIMSON COMET!!!=], who upon getting superpowers, put together her own costume, and at the first opportunity flew downtown to rescue hostages in a bank. She got yelled at enough by the police and her parents that she ended up at SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy.

[[AC: Western Animation]]
* This actually happens in the second episode of [[WesternAnimation/{{Ben10}} Ben 10]], as Ben uses Heatblast to save a woman and a little kid from a burning building, it however turns out to be [[WeNeedADistraction a distraction]] so that two men can rob a jewelry store.
** Ben's first act as a hero is stopping a forest fire (that he started by accident) with his first transformation. In a less literal sense, his first actual rescue of people came when he fought the KillerRobot that was sent to retrieve the Omnitrix.
** Another burning building rescue occurs in Ben10Omniverse where Ben is forced to use his [[BloodKnight Wrath]] form to rescue a little girl. Wrath being Wrath, he briefly tries actually ''fighting'' the fire before getting back on track.
* The first episode of ''DannyPhantom'' has the main character struggling with his new ghost powers, wondering what on Earth he should do with 'em. After a short offscreen duo with the Ectopusses, Danny gets his first real chance to prove his worth as a hero by combating a LethalChef that was terrorizing his school. From then on, he JumpedAtTheCall.
** There is also a photo of Danny playing this trope straight in one episode.
* This is Archangel's first act of Heroism (that we see) in ''XMenEvolution''. Interestingly, he doesn't rescue someone's kid from the fire, he rescues someone's paraplegic mother.
* As bad as ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}: The Goliath Chronicles'' is, it has a satisfying end when the BigBad tries to destroy a train carrying arrested Gargoyles, only to provide a spectacular incident when the head hate monger against that race is revealed in front of witnesses to be a murderous madman and the Gargoyles are true blood heroes who successfully stop the train, save hundreds of humans and turn their bad public image around for good.
----