Yonkers off-duty FF helps woman in burning vehicle

[Guest hoss]

Yonkers firefighter saves woman from burning car

By BRUCE GOLDING

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original Publication: April 1, 2006)

YONKERS — Sabrina Kharouba's 1990 Honda CRX never gave her much trouble, but on her way home from work she noticed other drivers were giving the little black coupe some strange looks.

And as she pulled up to a red light on Bronx River Road, one of them jumped out of his SUV and raced over to her window.

"He's like, 'Get out of your car!' " the 23-year-old clothing store worker said. "I'm like, 'What?' And he's like, 'Get out of your car!' "

When she stepped out of her vehicle shortly before 6 p.m. yesterday, Kharouba saw what everyone else was seeing — flames were shooting from the undercarriage.

The stranger pulled her to safety, Kharouba said, then went back to her car, reached inside and turned off the engine.

To the amazement of Kharouba and several bystanders, the man went back to his truck, pulled out a long object and calmly crawled underneath her burning vehicle.

As the onlookers shouted for him to get away, the man spent "at least a good 45 seconds, maybe even a minute" fishing around, she said.

"And he pulls out from underneath the car a rag on fire," she said. "He took control of the whole situation — not only saved my life, saved all the other people around, 'cause the car could have blew up."

Fire trucks arrived quickly, but the flaming rag had already been stomped out by the stranger, who told the crowd he was a Yonkers firefighter on his way to work.

Battalion 2 Fire Chief John Hoffman identified Kharouba's hero as Jairo "Alex" Arrieta, a 30-year-old Mount Vernon resident who joined the department in October 2000.

Hoffman said Arrieta's actions would likely make him eligible for the Commissioner's Award ribbon for courage while off-duty.

"Certainly, what he did was obviously out of the ordinary," Hoffman said.

Arrieta, who is assigned to Ladder 12 at the Fortfield Avenue firehouse, downplayed the event. The long object, he said, was a 4-foot plastic level left in his truck after a contracting job.

"I just saw someone who needed some help, and I guess that's what we went to the academy for, and I just did what any other other firefighter would have done," said Arrieta, a former city sanitation worker.

But Kharouba, who was able to drive home the car she bought for $1,000 in college, said Arrieta deserved recognition as a "complete hero."

"My legs were shaking, my heart was pumping," she said. "It was so, so scary .... He really went up and beyond."