Brother Jimmy's owner helps St. Martin Irma victims

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Restaurateur Jim Goldman owns Brother Jimmy's BBQ in and around New York City. He also owns several businesses and a home on St. Martin in the Caribbean.

"We've got to get these people back to some sense of normalcy," Goldman said. "It was paradise a week ago."

Goldman showed Fox 5 some cell phone he took of the destruction after he was able to finally get a helicopter ride from a friend from Puerto Rico to St. Martin.

The people who work for him there are like family, which is why after watching Hurricane Irma batter the island and seeing the aftermath on Twitter he had to go and help.

"I feel like I did something for a family that I just had to do," Goldman said. "And I'd do it again."

Goldman rescued two families. But in doing so, his heart broke because of violence he witnessed.

"I am stuck in a living hell because they're looting, they're burning," he said.

He stayed for a little more than 24 hours and said his job isn't done.

"When you're on an island you're stuck," Goldman said. "There's no way off for a lot of these people. There's no way on for supplies."

All Brother Jimmy's locations in Manhattan and Ziggy's on the Upper East Side will be fundraising for those impacted on St. Martin.