This emergency call came by way of a knock on the fire house door Sunday – and ended with a Bronx Bravest making a heroic rescue of a mother and child, officials said.
“We got a knock at the front door — a panicked civilian banging on the door saying there was a fire up the street,” FDNY Capt. Stephen Elliott of Engine 92/Ladder 44 recalled to The Post.
The firefighters who were in the station let dispatchers know about the fire report as they raced to the Claremont Village scene.
“As soon as we pulled out of the firehouse, we saw the smoke coming from the top floor of the building,” Elliott said.
The blaze was burning at 1316 Morris Ave. at 10:45 a.m. and there were people inside, he said.
One of the first smoke-eaters to arrive, Lt. John Vanderstar, heard people in a back bedroom of the fifth-floor apartment where the flames were raging.
“So he made the decision before the arrival of an engine company to move past the fire, which is a very difficult and calculated move,” Elliott said.
“He ducked below the fire in his full protective gear and self-contained breathing apparatus and shot down the hallway to the rear bedroom and found an adult woman and a child.”
The blaze had quickly escalated to a second-alarm fire bringing 25 units and 106 fire personnel to the scene.
At that point, firefighters were moving their hoses up to the top floor. Vanderstar opened a window and brought the tot and woman closer to it to wait for the coast to clear.
“He opened the window and tried to bring them closer to the window so they could have some fresh air while 42 Engine was extinguishing the fire,” Elliott said.
Vanderstar carried the tot down the building’s interior stairs, and firefighters Carlos Acevedo and Jerry Cash carried out the woman, officials said.
“If [the mother and child] were in that apartment for another minute or two, they most likely had no chance of survival,” Elliot said. “It’s an amazing rescue.”
The fire was deemed under control at 11:21 a.m.
The woman and child were transported to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition.
Fire marshals will investigate the cause.
