- An off-duty New York firefighter saved a life on his way home from his shift when he saw a burning car.
- Nicholas Perri Jr. pulled an injured driver out of a single-car crash Saturday.
- The local fire company said if it weren’t for Perri’s quick actions, the driver “would have burned to death.”
An off-duty New York firefighter saved a life when he pulled a woman out of a burning car early Saturday morning, authorities said.
Nicholas Perri Jr. was driving home to Brookfield, Connecticut after finishing a shift with the White Plains Fire Department when he saw the burning car on the side of the road around 3:15 a.m. NBC4 New York informed.
Perri immediately stopped and began working to carry out the rescue without equipment or a fire hose, the outlet reported.
“I assessed how it was in there and then I broke the front passenger window. I was able to free one of his legs, the other was pretty mangled. I was having a really hard time,” Perri said, according to NBC 4. “I was yelling, ‘You have to work with me because we’re running out of time here.’”
BVFC boss Andrew Ellis said the driver would have died if not for Perri’s quick rescue.
Courtesy of the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Company.
EMS and the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Company, who responded to the single-car crash, praised Perri in a statement on Facebook.
“The jacket he was wearing was burned by the fire. If not for the courageous actions of Mr. Perri, the operator would have been burned to death in his vehicle. His actions are a testament to him, the White Plains FD, and the fire service. as a whole”, says the BVFC statement.
The injured driver was taken to Danbury Hospital for treatment, and Perri was treated for minor injuries at the scene, the statement said.
“I was the first firefighter on the scene in Brookfield, and there was no way the victim would have survived if he hadn’t done what he did,” BVFC Chief Andrew Ellis told NBC 4.
