Firefighters rescue 3 people dangling from window of burning NYC building with only a rope, wild video shows
New York’s Bravest defended their title Friday when they saved three people dangling from the window of a burning Harlem building with only a rope in a dramatic and dangerous rescue.
Wild footage shows firefighters rappelling down the side of 2 St. Nicholas Place with the civilians in their arms as the raging fire tore through the apartment building — killing one person and injuring over a dozen.
The blaze broke out on the third floor of the six-story building at around 2:15 p.m. and quickly overtook the hallways, blocking residents of higher floors from reaching the stairwell, officials said.
With no way out, the three residents fled to the window, only to realize there was no fire escape to flee to safety.
One man was seen dangling from the fifth-story window as smoke billowed out from underneath him before the FDNY could reach him.
Firefighters who also had difficulty reaching the trapped New Yorkers decided to deploy the uncommon rescue method called “the life-saving rope evolution.”
Though practiced twice a week, the technique is typically only used by the FDNY once or twice a year.
“Our members attach themselves to a rope and then another member goes on to the rope and goes off the side of the building, goes down to the window and grabs the person that is trapped by the fire,” FDNY Chief of Operations John Hodgens said at a press conference.
One of the firefighters involved in the rare rescue is a probationary FDNY member with less than one year on the job.
“This happened three times at this fire. Three firefighters performed this evolution. We usually have one of these a year or two. This was three at one fire, a very heroic action,” Hodgens said.
Those three people were among five victims who were rushed to the hospital in critical condition, officials said.
One of the five, a 27-year-old man, was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Four others were hospitalized in stable condition. Eighteen total were treated for injuries, according to the FDNY.
Fire officials described the inferno as “challenging,” saying it broke out on the third floor and quickly overtook the hallway thanks to an open door, preventing many residents from the above floors from fleeing.
A resident who sublets a third-floor apartment next door to the unit where the blaze began told The Post he heard his neighbors’ cries for help from the darkness of the smoke-filled hallway.
“People were in the hallway screaming, ‘Help me, help me.’ We couldn’t see anything in the smoke,” Amar Bhatia, 21, said. “I couldn’t get to them, I couldn’t help them.”
He said he saw that the apartment next to his “was flaming” and about a minute after the fire alarm went off, the building was enveloped in darkness from all the smoke.
Bhatia and his roommate had to break through a locked door in order to reach the fire escape.
“We considered jumping but thank God we got out,” he said.
Resident Regina Shaw who lives on the top floor said she said she and her son grabbed their dogs and ran down the fire escape when their fire alarms began going off.
“My three firearm alarms went off and then all the alarms in the building,” the 58-year-old retired train operator said. “There was smoke coming out of the windows. Smoke everywhere. I heard people screaming, just screaming.”
The fire was so intense that smoke-eaters were blocked from reaching the fourth floor — the FDNY typically starts fighting flames on the floor above where it broke out, according to Hodges.
An engine company eventually extinguished some of the flames, allowing firefighters to run inside, where they found three unconscious victims on the floor of the upper hallways and the three who were dangling outside the windows.
At least one man who was hanging from the window had fallen just moments before the FDNY arrived, according to Hodges. It’s not clear whether he is the man who died at the hospital.
Hodgens praised the firefighters for safely deploying the daring rescue method.
Firefighter Jason Lopez said his team practices the life-saving rope evolution every Monday and Tuesday in the rare event they have to put the drill to use.
“We always train like the real thing. So when the real thing happens, we know what we’re doing,” Lopez said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
