KUDOS! FF Richard Schmidt, FDNY Rescue 4

[RWC130 594]

FDNY Rescue Co.4 Pulls Owner From Building Explosion

By LUIS PEREZ and ALEJANDRO LAZO

Newsday

By the time six firefighters from the elite Rescue Company 4 in Woodside got there, there was only a flaming pile of rubble at 32 East 62nd St.

It was 9 a.m., 10 minutes after a 911 call announcing that the four-story Upper East Side building collapsed in a loud boom, burying its owner, Nicholas Bartha, 66.

As ladder companies doused the flames with water, three members of the team inched forward, sifting through piles of charred wood, pancaked layers of flooring, acrid smoke, cement and bricks. With gas meters in their hands, the firefighters tried to gauge the extent of the explosive chemical in the air.

Then, firefighter Richard Schmidt, 44, heard a cry for help.

"Is anybody down there?" Schmidt recalled shouting. The cries were faint, but Schmidt made out the third one.

"Could you help me?" he said Bartha pleaded.

In seconds, Schmidt and firefighter Charles Weiman shouted orders to cut the water hoses and the rescue operation began.

Under 30 feet of rubble, Bartha was trapped in a 6- by 6- foot room that was part of the building's cellar. Firefighters slowly began picking rubble off from above, where flames still flickered.

Firefighters in Rescue Company 4 could not speak to Bartha. But at some point, while he was under the rubble, he used his cell phone to speak with other emergency personal, officials said.

Soon, through an opening not far from the sidewalk in front of the townhouse, they could see the man. A metal door with a piece of glass was on top of him and debris held the victim in from all sides. Bartha was covered in second- and third-degree burns.

For several minutes, before firefighters brought an emergency oxygen kit, Schmidt placed his own oxygen mask on the doctor's face, he said.

"Anything could have happened," Schmidt later said. "It wasn't a good place to be, but he was there. That's what we do."

Bartha, the only victim who was trapped in the rubble, was carried out on a stretcher that the firefighters lifted out from the hole. He was listed in critical condition at New-York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center last night.

At 1 p.m., hours after the fire was brought under control by more than 200 firefighters, construction crews began to remove the smoking debris.

The firefighters described the room as, "The only place he could have survived."

KUDOS FF RICHARD SCHMIDT AND THE MEMBERS OF RESCUE 4!!!

[ny10570 745]

To all those in the know in FDNY...Why was Rescue 4 on the job comming all the way from Queens? Were 1 and 2 on other Jobs?

[Guest]

To all those in the know in FDNY...Why was Rescue 4 on the job comming all the way from Queens?  Were 1 and 2 on other Jobs?

←

To The Best of my kowledge rescue 1 and 4 were the only rescues there along with collapse rescue 1 i dont think rescue 2 was there i dont know y either

[csf248 0]

To all those in the know in FDNY...Why was Rescue 4 on the job comming all the way from Queens?  Were 1 and 2 on other Jobs?

←

Actually it should have been 1 and 3 first due i think, seeing as how rescue 3 also covers the harlem area, wich is in upper manhattan.

rescue 2 is in Brooklyn.

[27east 19]

Rescue 4 was dispatched with their collapse unit on the 10-60

[Guest]

FYI, R#1 is the first rescue in. Rescue#4 is the next rescue in due to the location. If it had been further uptown it would be R#3.

[JBE 328]

Rescue Company order of assignment to E 62 and Madison, 1,4,3,2,5.

[FirNaTine 370]

I'm sure all the RESCUE BOYZ down there are battling it out right now with regards to who actually made the grab!