By Jay Rey
The Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Several off-duty police and fire personnel were proclaimed heroes Saturday when they rescued two people from a house fire less than a block from the Sorrento Cheese Italian Heritage Festival in North Buffalo.
Authorities were still trying to sort through the details Saturday, but here’s what happened, according to several people on the scene:
Off-duty officers stationed at Crestwood and Hertel avenues while working private security at the festival radioed for help when they spotted smoke coming from the home at 63 Crestwood.
“They run down the street to the house and start to inquire if anyone is in there,” said Jeffrey Rinaldo, a Buffalo police detective in charge of festival security.
“When we got to the house there were heavy fire conditions on the second floor,” added Ed Ortiz, a Buffalo fire marshal, who was one of the rescuers. “There were some people across the street yelling, ‘I think there are some people in there!’ ”
One woman made it out of the house on her own.
Rescuers — including off-duty Buffalo Police Officers Jason Sutter and Eric Hofschneider — then broke down a door and went through the thick, black smoke to retrieve another female in the upstairs apartment.
There was still another man trapped upstairs. Rescuers looked to get in by way of an upstairs porch.
“I ran out to the front of the house and this gentleman two houses away was painting a house,” Ortiz said Saturday. “He was running toward us with a ladder.”
As the rescuers brought the ladder around to the back, others — including Larry McDaniel of the Buffalo Fire Department — had already hoisted their way up to the porch to rescue the last person inside.
“He went in there and yanked him out,” Ortiz said.
By that time, firefighters had arrived on the scene with equipment and were able to help get the victim down from the upstairs porch.
The victims were taken to Erie County Medical Center, but they did not appear to suffer any serious injuries, officials said.
“It was the right time at the right place,” Ortiz said. “God was with us.”
It is unclear exactly how many were at the scene to help, but the rescuers included: Sutter, Hofschneider, Ortiz, Rinaldo, Tom Cisela, a captain with the New York State courts; Eric Nikischer, a state courts officer; Ron Deschenes, a board member of the Italian Festival; and McDaniel, John Piegay and Alan Forcucci, all with the Buffalo Fire Department.
“Those guys are heroes,” Rinaldo said.
Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield agreed.
“They did what they had to do,” Whitfield said Saturday. “They were told by neighbors there were people in the building. They went in with no regard for themselves.
“On a daily basis, members of the department go above and beyond with no recognition and no pay,” Whitfield said. “I think that’s a pretty good story.”
Copyright 2011 The Buffalo News