(L to R) FF Paul Hoekzema, FF Denis Keating, Lt. Terry Ward, Simone Roberts (seated), Rehanna Roberts, Alayna Roberts, FF Patrick Griffin, FF Edward Vreeland and FF Thomas Brogan.
Ladder 32 | 14 Feb 2012
Firefighter Patrick Griffin from Ladder 32 said he was thrilled when he got three extra special visitors at the firehouse in February.
Simone Roberts and her two daughters, Rehanna, 5, and Alayna, 3, stopped by to thank the hero that saved the mother and 5-year-old girl from a fire just days before.
“I was a little choked up when I met them,” Firefighter Griffin said. “It’s emotional when you see their faces . you know you did something right.”
Ms. Roberts’ eyes filled with tears as they sat in the firehouse kitchen and talked about what happened that night.
“Thank you, thank you; that’s all I can say,” she said, smiling at her two girls who were holding bouquets of pink roses and daisies given to them by Firefighter Griffin.
Ms. Roberts said she could not remember how she woke up the night of Jan. 26, but recalls seeing the smoke and feeling the heat of the fire. Immediately she said she found Alayna, broke the window and shouted for help.
Firefighter Griffin was on duty when his company – including Lt. Terry Ward, and Firefighters Tom Brogan, Paul Hoekzema, Denis Keating and Eddie Vreeland – responded to the fire on Bartholdi St. in the Bronx at 9:30 p.m. He remembered the street smelling like smoke as they rounded the corner to the building that night.
People on the street were screaming that there were people trapped inside, and as they climbed the stairs to the top floor of the two-story residence, others said the same.
The apartment was filled with thick smoke and high heat. Firefighter Griffin said he and other members of Ladder 32 crawled past the fire in the kitchen into a back bedroom, where he found the mother and daughter – Ms. Roberts said her husband was working that night and she had dropped Alayna out the window to some Good Samaritans below before fire units arrived.
Ms. Roberts was semi-conscious and Rehanna was unconscious when they were found – and the mother was clutching to her daughter.
Firefighter Griffin said he thought of his own children – ages 8 years, 5 years and 5-months – when doing the search.
“She just kept saying, ‘my baby, my baby,’” Firefighter Griffin said, making him concerned there was another child inside.
Firefighter Patrick Griffin with Rehanna, the 5-year-old girl he saved from a fire.
After successfully removing them from the apartment, firefighters did another search, to ensure there were no one else was in the apartment.
They were transported by EMS to Jacobi Medical Center and Rehanna spent five days in the hyperbaric unit.
“There are so many times that the outcome is not so positive,” said Lt. Ward, who has three children of his own. “When everything comes together and works out this way, it feels great.”
After snacking on pink and blue iced donuts at the firehouse, the mother and two girls headed to their school, just a block from their old home.
As she walked out of the firehouse, Ms. Roberts said, “I’m so grateful for them and what they do.”
