and half into the
hallway,"
Firefighter Greg Chevalley,
38, said.
Firefighters
battled high winds
and choking smoke to
save three people -
including a young
girl about to jump
from a second-story
window - from a
burning Brooklyn
rowhouse early
Wednesday.
A mattress ignited
just before 3 a.m.
and filled the
Bedford-Stuyvesant
home with intense
flames, trapping
three residents
inside the building
on Marion St.,
witnesses said.
One girl rushed to a
second-floor window
in search of fresh
air and looked as if
she were going to
jump, firefighters
said.
"This young girl was
hanging out the
window screaming,
'Help me! Help
me!,'" said Joe
Fischer, a
firefighter assigned
to Ladder 176.
"She looked like she
was going to
jump so
we had to get to her
quickly," Fischer
said.
Though their
visibility was
impaired by the
swirling snow,
Fischer and
Firefighter Mike
Yannuacci raced up a
ladder and plucked
the girl from the
advancing flames.
"She was really
scared, really
frightened,"
Yannuacci said. "I'm
just glad we were
able to be there.
It's just a good
feeling to help
people."
Other firefighters
who went in through
the building's front
door crawled up the
stairs to the second
floor and found an
unconscious man
sprawled in the
hallway.
"I felt him laying
on the floor, half
way in the doorway
and half into the
hallway,"
Firefighter Greg
Chevalley, 38, said.
"I dragged him out
of the building,"
Chevalley said.
"When I saw him
outside, he was
pretty burned up. He
was trying to get
out of his bedroom
but he couldn't make
it."
That man, whose name
was not released,
was taken to New
York Cornell Weill
Medical Center with
second- and
third-degree burns
over much of his
body.
The man, who is in
his mid-30s, was
listed in critical
condition, officials
said.
"We just lost five
people the other day
[to a fire]," said
Chevalley, recalling
the deadly
Bensonhurst blaze
Saturday morning
that killed five
Guatemalan
immigrants.
"I really hope we
can get some good
news out of this
one," he said.
Neither the girl nor
the building's other
resident - an
unidentified woman -
suffered serious
injuries, FDNY
officials said. It
was not immediately
clear how the
mattress ignited.
