Bravest Save 2 Sleeping Teens In Harrowing Rescue
After Mom Returns Home To Find Home Ablaze
NY Daily News 9/9/09
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Maisel/News Two teenagers, two police officers and three firefighters were injured when an all hands fire raced through a house in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. |
Firefighters pulled two
semiconscious teens to safety on Tuesday after an intense
kitchen fire filled a Brooklyn home with choking smoke,
officials said.
Dark plumes of smoke poured from the second floor of the tidy
Bensonhurst home, but firefighters were able to crawl through
pitch-black conditions to find the boys in a rear bedroom,
officials said.
The firefighters then carried the teenagers out a window to the
sidewalk below, where one of their mothers was waiting with
tears in her eyes.
"My son was brought out [and] I was relieved," said a shaken
Carolyn Maldonado, 39. "He came out all right."
Maldonado's 19-year-old son Damian and his 15-year-old friend
were taken to Lutheran Medical Center for treatment of smoke
inhalation. Both were expected to recover.
Maldonado said she went to the bank with her daughter Alexis,
12, only to return to her Bay 29th St. home minutes later and
find smoke and flames.
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Maisel/NewsFirefighter Andrew Provost of Ladder 168 is treated for heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation after rescue. |
"Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" Maldonado said. "The coffee pot must
have been on. I always check. I'm a nervous person."
FDNY officials confirmed the blaze ignited in the kitchen at
1:15 p.m. "When we went inside, we found fire in the kitchen -
the entire kitchen was involved," said Firefighter Thomas
Carrera of Ladder 168. "The fire was pretty bad."
Damian Maldonado, a senior at New Utrecht High School, was
sleeping when the fire started, his mother said. His friend's
name was not released.
"I saw people say, 'Help me! There's a fire!'" said neighbor
Yelena Loiko, who saw the teens cry for help. "It was a big
fire."
Two police officers also were treated for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters also saved several birds living in the house,
though one was still missing late yesterday, Carolyn Maldonado
said.
jlemire@nydailynews.com
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