By Laura French
NEW YORK — An FDNY crew rescued four people from the eighth floor during an all-hands apartment blaze in Brooklyn on Saturday.
Firefighters forced entry into the apartment where they were met with zero-visibility conditions due to a “wall of black smoke,” FDNY Lt. George Mueller, Ladder 107, said in a statement on the agency’s Facebook page.
Mueller and Firefighter Khalid Lewis found the first individual about 10 feet into the apartment and removed them while Firefighter Khalid Lee found a second individual during his search around the same time. Mueller and Lewis later found two more victims, and all were safely removed.
The person located by Lee was discovered under a mattress in a back room, according to the New York Post. Two other unconscious victims were found in the living room and in a bedroom closet, and one semi-conscious victim was found trying to escape with their head hanging out of a window.
The four residents were a woman and her three children, the New York Post reports.
The FDNY said in a statement that the patients were transported the hospital with serious injuries.
“Everyone did a great job forcing the door, making searches, and putting the fire out,” Mueller said in his statement.
About 60 firefighters battled the blaze, extinguishing the blaze in less than an hour. Lewis described the rescue as “emotional” and said everyone was “praying for the victims,” according to the Post.
“We worked as a team to find the fire and individuals. It was a very high heat situation and we relied on our training in order to remove everyone from the fire. It was a collective effort,” Lewis said in a statement.