The FDNY says a lithium-ion battery sparked a fire in a Midtown Manhattan high-rise that trapped residents Saturday morning, injuring 38 people, two with life-threatening injuries. Devoted FDNY members were at the scene within minutes, risking their lives to save lives, as always.
Mayor Eric Adams said “Thank you to the women and men of New York’s Bravest for their heroic work high above the streets of Manhattan this morning. As of now, we’re relieved to report that while we have two people in critical condition, there have been no fatalities.”
FDNY shared the following statement after the dramatic rescue:
“Our first units were confronted with heavy fire at the front door, blocking the occupants only means of egress. This required a herculean team effort from our members. In total we put four of our members on a lifesaving rope. We train on that; we train on all of our procedures often. FDNY procedures fundamentally value the team effort, individuals execute that. That is what we saw inside the fire building, outside the fire building with members being lowered. We started with a member from Ladder 16 who was lowered down, he realized the victim hanging out the window was caught on the child gate.
That rope system was reset and another Firefighter was lowered to the victim and held onto the victim. A member from Rescue1 came down with a Halligan and was able to get the window gate freed, this allowed the whole weight of the victim to be on the Firefighter from Ladder16. He was then lowered by the team above to the floor below with the victim. A fourth member then went on rope from Ladder2 and was lowered to the floor below, at that point the inside team was able to remove the additional victims from inside the apartment. The cost of failure is great both to civilians and our members, they expect us to come prepared and we came prepared, we always do. We have a winning mindset in the FDNY, we play to win on every run, every tour, and every day,” said FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Frank Leeb on yesterday’s rescue effort at 429 East 52nd Street in Manhattan.
FDNY Firefighter Artur Podgorski said, “My role was to go under the victim and start to hold her weight, so the member above me could free her arm and I could hold her and bring her safely below. It is a team effort, you have to put trust in the members above and below you. This is why we train, when moments like this happen there is no room for mistakes, we fall back on our training.”
