Dramatic footage captures hero cops rescuing babies in diapers and a man on crutches as they race to evacuate a burning apartment building in Brooklyn, New York.
New York Police Department officers sprang into action after detecting a fire on the fourth floor of the Langston Hughes Houses in Brownsville last week.
The footage, released by the NYPD on Tuesday, shows officers Mark Kalwa and Vincenzo Rallo running into a wall of smoke and evacuating 12 people, including two babies, a teenager with a broken leg and a man on crutches.
“It’s pretty thick: hard to breathe, hard to see.” I remember some people coming towards me,” Kalwa said. NBC.
Dramatic footage captures hero cops rescuing babies in diapers and a man on crutches as they race to evacuate a burning apartment building in Brooklyn, New York.
New York Police Department officers sprang into action after detecting a fire on the fourth floor of the Langston Hughes Houses in Brownsville last week.
Mark Kalwa (left) and Vincenzo Rallo (right) ran into a wall of smoke and evacuated 12 people, including two babies, a teenager with a broken leg and a man on crutches.
Officers were driving through the complex when they heard people screaming for help last Wednesday.
‘When you hear the screams, it’s something inside you. “You can’t ignore that and wait for a fire, so we went up,” Rallo said.
‘[Kalwa] He had a flashlight, so he went in first and directed people towards me. “I was at the door of the fourth floor staircase when they came towards me, that’s when we started escorting people down,” Rallo explained.
Rallo recalled that the first person who approached him was a desperate mother with a child.
“She looked like she was going to fall, so I took the baby from her, helped her down the stairs and picked up the baby. And that was the first one we knocked down,” Rallo said.
Another officer arrived, carrying a teenager with a broken leg down the stairs when the fire broke out.
Officer Alam put the boy down because the quicker he could spot him, the better. “He carried the child up three flights of stairs and out the back door to safety,” Rallo said.
New York Police Department officers sprang into action after detecting a fire on the fourth floor of the Langston Hughes Houses in Brownsville last week.
Another officer arrived, carrying a teenager with a broken leg down the stairs when the fire broke out.
Rallo recalled that the first person who approached him was a desperate mother with a child
Body camera footage captures officers running up and down stairs, carrying the children to an NYUP patrol car.
‘That’s when I saw the father go down with the other two children and fall to the ground. That’s when I took the other two kids to the car,” Rallo recalled.
“It was the most rewarding thing – having the child be safe was the coolest feeling,” he added.
In total, 12 people were evacuated from the building and two women, ages 61 and 29, were hospitalized in stable condition for smoke inhalation, according to The charge.
“It’s humbling to be there in their time of need and provide that service to them,” Kalwa said.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry shared the clip on X, former Twitter, and praised the officers for their heroic actions.
He wrote: ‘Excellent work by our NYPD officers who sprang into action when they smelled and saw smoke in a building. They requested the FDNY and quickly evacuated residents, including children, to safety.
Authorities are currently investigating the cause of the fire.