NYPD officers speak out after rescuing woman from apartment fire in Queens
QUEENS - Dramatic body camera video showed the moment several NYPD officers busted into a burning apartment in Queens to save a woman inside.
"We were met by a wave of smoke - sprinklers were heavy so hard to see in front of us. Two of my officers had the presence to bring an extinguisher and extinguished fire when we got her out of there," Sergeant John O'Rourke said.
Orourke and his team from the 115th precinct in Queens were working overnight on July 19 when a fire started inside the apartment building.
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"We immediately entered. We knew it was on the fifth floor," O'Rourke said.
Body camera video made public by the NYPD captured the officers in action.
"I was scared," Carmen Davila said after being rescued from the fire.
Davila is grateful to the officers.
The building is located at 92-15 Northern Boulevard in Jackson Heights.
"We were on the corner of 94 Street, just down the block, and someone told us there’s a fire. We ran down the block," NYPD officer Kieran Kelly said.
Seven NYPD officers and one sergeant responded.
"In that moment, we knew someone had to be saved," NYPD officer Nicholas Maschia said.
"We kind of took it second by second and a game plan on the fly," O'Rourke said.
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Davila said she was inside her bedroom and her husband had left when the fire started. She was looking for the extinguisher, but she was too afraid to follow.
It’s believed a lithium-ion battery started the blaze.
Fire crews arrived at the scene, but it was the officers who put out the flames.