WNBC 4 – March 06, 2017
by NBC News
A man was rescued by FDNY firefighters Sunday after he became trapped inside a Brooklyn building while trying to save his grandmother from a fire.
Ubeaka McKinney had re-entered the building on Rockaway Avenue to find his grandmother, but became trapped on the third floor. His grandmother was also rescued by firefighters; she suffered minor injuries.
“Those guys, they got me out of the building,” McKinney said. “I was hanging out the window and they came down from the roof on a rope.”
To save him, firefighters performed a dangerous rescue — called a roof-rope rescue — in which a firefighter was lowered from a rope tied to the engine ladder, grabbed the man from an open window, then the pair were lowered to a first-floor landing.
“I had to reassure him just to hold on to me and he’d be down quick,” said Ladder 176 firefighter Andrew Scharf, who performed the rescue. “He was very thankful and very happy.”
Roof-rope rescues are a last resort because of the danger associated with the procedure, fire officials said.
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