Most of the time, acts of bravery happen far away from the gaze of cameras and cell phones.
But every so often, news cameras or the cameras of everyday citizens capture moments of incredible heroism and courage.
And whether it’s emergency responders or simple everyday citizens these are the moments that remind us of the impact even one courageous soul can have on the lives of others.
These are the best hero moments of 2014, caught on tape.
Elderly man rescued from home by good Samaritan (see above)
One of the most watched videos of 2014 captured an incredible act of bravery from a complete stranger.
A woman pulled her car over after a massive fire consumed a home in Fresno, California this past October.
The woman pulled out her camera and began recording when off-screen, a girl can be heard crying out.
“My daddy’s in there. Can you get him out please?”
Moments later, her plea is answered. A man carrying the girl’s father over his shoulder runs out to the safety of the sidewalk.
Two window washers were trapped on a dangling scaffold nearly 70 stories up the new 1 World Trade Center building this past November, before firefighters sawed through a thick double-layered window to reach them.
The dramatic rescue, coming a little more than a week after the nation’s tallest building officially opened, was followed by throngs of New Yorkers on the ground and many more around the world watching live.
Passengers teamed up to free a man whose leg was stuck in the gap between a train and a platform in Perth, Western Australia this past August.
Footage from the station shows passengers boarding the train when a fellow commuter slips and becomes trapped in the gap.
A spokesperson for Transperth told ABC News that quick thinking prevented what could have been a horrible accident.
“Everyone sort of pitched in. It was people power that saved someone from possibly quite serious injury.”
Cell phone cameras captured the tense scene as rushing flood waters pushed an elderly couple’s van towards a crevice on Nevada’s Interstate 15 in September.
Lorne and Margie Miller had just set out on a cross-country trip when flash floods stranded the couple on I-15 near Moapa, Nevada.
Cell phone camera footage shows the incredible scene as the Miller’s Toyota Sienna is pushed by the gushing water like a twig being carried along by a river.
Thanks to the quick-thinking of a nearby construction crew and one courageous cop, the elderly couple escaped the incident with only minor injuries.
A firefighter in Spain endeared himself to millions around the world with this touching act of puppy heroism this past October.
Firefighter Carlos Arana attempted to save a puppy who had been pulled from a fire in Valencia, Spain.
The rescue attempt was caught on camera and has since become a viral video smash.
“The poor little thing was completely limp but Carlos was determined to save him,” said fireman Cristobel Jover Badia.
A 44-year-old woman is lucky to be alive after falling on to the tracks inside a Boston subway station this past May.
Surveillance video released by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, shows a woman who appears to be unaware of her surroundings walking off the platform and landing onto the tracks of the Back Bay station.
A group of bystanders quickly came to her rescue, jumping down and lifting her off the tracks.
Even a massive humpback whale found itself the recipient of some timely help after being trapped off the coast of Santa Barbara, California.
An NOAA Fisheries’ Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program untangled a humpback whale that was tangled up in a crab pot line in May.
According to NOAA officials, the humpback was stuck in the line for more than two weeks.
One Minnesota woman is lucky to be alive after a lightning strike set her car on fire – and a good Samaritan helped a police officer pull her to safety.
In this dash cam video released by Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Department in May, officer Chris Burban with Lake Crystal PD can be seen runing to the vehicle, which is engulfed in flames.
An unidentified man then runs to the car and helps the officer assist the driver out of the vehicle.
A video of South Korean rescue divers trying to break the glass of a window in the sunken ferry “The Sewol” was released by the South Korean Navy in April.
The diver in the video is from the Navy’s Sea Salvage & Rescue Unit, and used a hammer customised for this rescue operation.
Divers were forced to break the windows after strong currents, bad weather and poor visibility hampered the search for the hundreds of missing passengers.
A little girl’s life hung in the balance when she was buried in rubble after an alleged airstrike on her home on Jan. 22.
An activist filmed 14 month old Ghina Khalil as rescuers dug her out from rubble and dust, apparently with no obvious injuries.
The footage, which was uploaded to the Internet by the Nour Media Centre, showed a group of men in the suburb of Maasraniyeh digging through rubble to reveal the dazed infant.
-With files from the Associated Press
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