Off-duty fire chief saves man in Belt Pkwy car fire

August 19, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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BAY RIDGE — AN OFF-DUTY FIREFIGHTER traveling on a family trip to Disney World rescued an unconscious man from a car fire on the Belt Parkway last week, reports PIX News. Deputy Chief George Healy in an FDNY Instagram post wrote that when his car got stuck in traffic in the early hours of Monday morning, he soon recognized that the cause of the jam was a “significant accident” with a fire involved, and quickly left his vehicle, intending to offer assistance. Healy said that he discovered an unconscious man in the back seat of one of two crashed cars, and that a fire in its engine compartment was “starting to overtake the vehicle.” The doors were caved in, but with the help of a police officer, Healy was able to smash out its window, climb into the backseat, extricate the victim from his seatbelt and pull him from the car; the victim was then transported to NYU Langone in stable condition by EMS.

“I’ve been doing this for 34 years. I knew there was no one there and if we didn’t do something about this, the person wasn’t going to get out… When I went back to my car, a couple of other drivers approached me and said ‘Man, you ran into that, what’s wrong with you?’ and I’m like, ‘I’m a New York City firefighter; that’s what New York City firefighters do,’” Healy said in an FDNY Instagram post.

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