Thanksgiving Miracle: Hero Fireman Pulls Baby From Blaze
Nov 25, 2011 1 Comment ›› Pat Dollard
A fire engulfed a three-story Brooklyn apartment building Thursday — setting up a dramatic rescue and revival of an 8-month-old boy.
Flames broke out at 12:15 p.m. on the top floor of the Park Slope brownstone on President St. near Fourth Ave.
The fast-moving fire trapped five people on the third floor — twin sisters, their boyfriends and the baby — forcing a badly burned beau to leap to a second-floor ledge.
By the time firefighters fought back the flames and rescued the others, the baby and one of the boyfriends, who is 35, were in cardiac arrest, authorities said. Both were revived at the scene and hospitalized in critical condition.
Rescuers removed the infant from the apartment and handed him off to firefighters Andrew Hartshorne and Neil Malone, who began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
“The baby was still alive but [he] took too much smoke,” said witness Wilfred Rios. “[He] wasn’t breathing too much.”
“It was horrifying to see a baby like this,” said neighbor Maddy Johnson.
FDNY Deputy Chief Kevin Woods said all five victims were expected to survive and credited the firefighters’ fast response time — 2 minutes and 27 seconds — following a 911 call.
“If not for these efforts, this would have had different results,” Woods said. “And that on this Thanksgiving Day, we are truly grateful.”
The blaze began in a bedroom, where a mattress caught fire, a source said. When the occupants tried to move the mattress, the flames spread rapidly, trapping them in the bedroom, one official source said.
It was not clear how the mattress caught fire, but sources said the fire did not appear to be suspicious.
One half-naked man broke a third-story window and leaped to a ledge 10 feet below.
“I heard a lot of banging and glass breaking,” said next-door neighbor David McKnight, 34. “I come out and see a man hanging from a ledge. He was cut and bleeding. He was screaming for help.”
