What to Know
- Firefighters described their harrowing rescue of several people from a Jamaica, Queens, house
- One was discovered shaking an air conditioner in an attempt to get out a window, another was spotted waving a flashlight
- Two people were taken to local hospitals; their conditions weren't known
A trapped person frantically shaking an air conditioner to get out the window. The beam of a flashlight waving through the smoke. A person trapped between furniture in a room full of flames.
Firefighters shared these harrowing tales of rescue from one fire in Queens on Saturday evening. More than 100 firefighters responded to put out the fire at the two-story house on 130th Street in Jamaica. Two people were taken to a local hospital for injuries, but their conditions weren't known.
David Kusnitz, a 14-year veteran of the FDNY, said he saw the air conditioner in the attic window being shaken as he pulled up to the building.
He used the tip of his ladder to break the air conditioner loose, then climbed into the window.
"I saw hands waving through heavy smoke in the attic," he said.
He helped both of the trapped people out the window and down the ladder.
Local
Firefighter Edward Bergen also saw evidence of a trapped person through a window -- someone was waving a flashlight on the second floor and yelling.
He extended a 24-foot ladder up to the window, but smoke was coming out from the first floor, up the ladder and into the second-story window, he said.
"I climbed up and was able to guide them feet-first down the ladder,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the basement, firefighter Matthew Madison described encountering a "fire that was well-advanced with conditions deteriorating."
He found a person in between the bed and a dresser and pulled the victim out to safety.
