A one-armed, one-legged hero helped rescue two babies from a raging house fire in the Bronx Monday morning that left a dozen people injured, authorities and witnesses said.
The unidentified good Samaritan dropped the two children from a third-floor terrace with one hand and another male resident on the ground below safely caught them, witnesses said.
“The gentleman had the baby hanging off the porch. We started screaming, ‘Let go of the babies! Let go of the babies!’ The guy who caught the babies passed them on [to me],” said Franciane Valmont, 50, lives next door.
Several other people were removed from the building by firefighters.
Valmont said she handed the lucky tykes to EMS once ambulances arrived at the scene on Taylor Avenue near Watson Avenue in the Soundview section.
“I will live with it for a good while,” Valmont said of the terrifying experience.
Two of the victims are in critical condition, officials said. Three more were in serious condition and seven people suffered minor injuries. All were taken to Jacobi Hospital.
Curt Isakson is a 35 year veteran of the fire service. Curt is currently a Battalion Chief for Escambia County Fire Rescue. Previously worked 9 years with the Pensacola Fire Department where he was assigned as the Company Officer on Rescue 31. Curt’s fire service experiences started at a young age as a Junior firefighter with the Midway Fire Protection District and rose through the ranks to Captain. He has worked in volunteer, career, and combination departments.
Curt has held all ranks up to Battalion Chief and been assigned to operations, training, inspections, and was Chief of Special Operations for 7 years. Curt owns and operates County Fire Tactics that covers a very diverse range of fire service topics, as well as Firefighter Rescues, a site that documents rescues made by firefighters around the country.
He has annual contracts with numerous departments to provide standardized monthly training for these departments that respond daily together under an automatic aid agreement. Curt teaches nationally to include; FDIC, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, Orlando Fire Conference, Atlanta Fire Conference, Bowling Green State University, and owns/operates the annual HROC, COBC, WOTF, CFT ODP on Pensacola Beach. He is a Florida Certified Fire Officer, Instructor, Inspector, Arson, and FLUSAR.
