Kids From Queens Fire, Kin Make Rapid
|
FDNY officials said smoke alarms went off, but the flames moved too fast for the Montero family to evacuate. "There was zero visibility," said Firefighter Mike Fitall of Ladder 142, who found the boys' grandmother - Sarah Ching, 59 - unconscious at the apartment's front door. "She was pretty lifeless," said Fitall, who said he was able to resuscitate the woman. "It was great to see her come back to life." |
NY Daily News 1/28/09
 |
 |
Two Queens boys who cheated death when firefighters plucked them from their burning apartment were watching TV in the hospital Wednesday after making a remarkable recovery.
Carlos Montero Jr., 8, and his brother, Dylan, 6, were even upset over missing school, and relatives comforted them by telling them to think of it as a snow day. "We believe in God," said Lilia Mejia, 42, the sister-in-law of the boys' parents, Carlos Montero Sr. and Veronica Montero. "This is a new beginning for them."
The boys were talking with relatives at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell just a day after FDNY rescuers carried their limp bodies out of their smoke-filled building in Woodhaven.
Five members of the family, including the boys' parents and grandmother, Sarah Ching, 59, were trapped in their third-floor apartment when a blaze started in another unit by careless smoking engulfed the building Tuesday.
The dad had to jump onto the roof of a parked van to escape.
Firefighters raced into the choking smoke and pulled an unconscious Veronica Montero and her young sons to safety.
Doctors told relatives all the family members are making remarkable recoveries from their injuries.
Veronica Montero's heart briefly stopped, and paramedics revived her on the way to the hospital.
She and Ching, her mother, are now breathing with the help of oxygen tubes and are in critical but stable condition.
Carlos Montero Sr., 49, broke a couple of bones but is now walking and talking freely.
He walked without help to the bedside of his wife and squeezed her hand. Veronica Montero, 28, responded by crying, relatives said.
Despite making progress, the two boys are distraught over the fire and have asked where they will live when they are released from the hospital.
"We as a family will be more strong and more united," Mejia said. "In the beginning it won't be easy. You wake up one morning and have nothing."
Manuel Alvarez, 47, Carlos Montero Sr.'s brother, vowed to help his relatives get back on their feet.
"They have nothing," he said. "They have no clothes. They're on the street."
With Edgar Sandoval
related...
Bravest Save Family Of Four Queens Courier 1/29/09
Rescued: FDNY Pulls Four From Flames Queens Courier 1/29/09
|
|
