May 17, 2024 NYC Office of the Mayor
Mayor Eric Adams: First, I just really want to thank Jacobi Hospital. This is the second time I've been here at the hospital this week. This hospital has continuously responded, not only to everyday citizens here in the Bronx, but to our first responders over and over again. I want to just thank the team for the level of professionalism that they show and just continuous operations during these times of emergency. During the times of even for primary care for service for the residents of the Bronx.
Today, I want to update New Yorkers about a two-alarm fire earlier today that injured three of New York City's Bravest. Two firefighters are in serious but stable condition. One has been injured, but he is in stable condition after they heroically responded to a blaze in a private dwelling in the Bronx that the chief will go into the details over. We are praying for their recovery. I think all New Yorkers appreciate the level of expertise that our firefighters bring and how not only are they there for the residents of the home, but for each other as well.
I want to thank EMS members who arrived at the scene and quickly rendered life-saving care. They are truly New York City's best. Our first responders should know that they have the full support of the people of the city and they appreciate how committed they are to doing their job. Today's incident is a reflection and a reminder of how dangerous the job of a firefighter is and how they are really optimum professionals in responding and dealing with these crises. On behalf of the people of this city, I want to thank them for their courage, their commitment to the city, and dedication to ensuring the safety of all of the innocent people who were able to leave the scene without any injuries. We'll turn it over now to Fire Commissioner Kavanagh.
Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to reiterate what the mayor said. We are incredibly grateful to the hospital staff who swiftly treated our members today and are part of the reason that they are okay, as well as to our members who risk their lives every day. Today is just an example of the conditions they typically face, our firefighters especially. I also want to thank EMS, who, thanks to their swift action, is probably the reason that our member is alive today. It truly takes a team, and that team did everything today to make this a good outcome and not a sad one for us. We're very grateful for that.
The chief is going to get into the details on the fire, but we did have a fire today. It came in at approximately 3 p.m. at 344 White Plains Road, and our units responded in under five minutes. I will let the chief talk about the fire, but in the midst of that fire, one of our members gave a mayday. A mayday means that a member is critically injured. That member was pulled out of the fire unconscious and was tagged as a red tag. They were immediately treated on scene by two EMS lieutenants who began resuscitation, including administering a life-saving drug you hear us talk about a lot, hydroxocobalamin.
It is truly a lifesaver. It was administered to him right away, and it does reverse the effect of cyanide poisoning, which is present in smoke inhalation. We do believe that may have saved his life.
I cannot stress enough, as I said at the top, how dangerous this job is and how quickly it can go wrong. The dangers are fast and hard, and conditions can change in an instant. A typical fire can become atypical, as it did today. We are incredibly grateful for the entire team here and in the Fire Department. I also just want to point out that today kicks off EMS week, so it is certainly a day to thank and appreciate our members of EMS throughout the city. Please go to your local station and thank EMS and fire today. Today is a day they would love to hear it and would appreciate it. We really can't thank everybody enough.
Just to give the conditions and the patience we have for a recap, we had one red-tag firefighter. He is stable and will be held overnight for monitoring. We had one orange-tag firefighter who was treated and stable and will likely go home this evening. Then we had one green-tag firefighter who has already been treated and released. We had no civilian injuries, and we did have five civilians that were displaced from their homes and are being rehomed by Red Cross.
Chief John Hodgens, Chief of Department, Fire Department: Good afternoon. In the Bronx today we had a private dwelling fire, a private home, two stories, and another home adjacent to it, a similar two-story building. When the firefighters arrived, one of the buildings was heavily involved in fire. We had fire in the basement, the first floor, and the second floor. The engine company brought the hose. Before they went into the building, they quickly hit the outside of the building to stop the fire from spreading to the adjacent home. That was a successful operation.
As they worked their way into the first floor, there was a heavy heat and smoke condition, and they were searching for fire and operating the hose line. One of the firefighters who was holding the nozzle was complaining during the operation that he was having a difficult time breathing. The officer was right there with him, and they kept operating. When the firefighter said it again, the officer said, okay, you have to leave the building. The nozzle man passed off the nozzle to the backup firefighter who was right there next to him, and he began to leave the building.
As he was leaving, he fell down and went unconscious. The officer noticed that right away, immediately transmitted a mayday, which brings more help to get this firefighter out of the building. As they were removing him, Rescue Company 3 from the Bronx came up the stairs into the building and assisted getting this firefighter out as quickly as possible. When they got him out onto the sidewalk, he was not breathing. He was in respiratory arrest. Quickly, our EMS members went to work. They were there, and they immediately administered, as the commissioner said, hydroxocobalamin, which probably would save his life. At the same time, they were resuscitating him for his respiratory arrest.
He's here now. He's awake, alert, receiving great care from the Jacobi staff. All in all, this is a much better outcome than we thought it would be.
Question: How long has the firefighter who was injured, he’s a veteran? How many years has he been on the job?
Chief Hodgens: He's been on the job four years. I do not know him personally, but just talking to the fellow firefighters, he's been deployed overseas for active military duty three times. So, heroic.
Yes, he's an Army member. He's been deployed overseas for combat duty. He's the real deal, a hero.
Question: Do you think that there was a problem with his breathing apparatus that led him to inhale the smoke? Because it sounds like it was a fairly routine operation.
Chief Hodgens: So we're investigating that. We take the mask, the breathing apparatus. We bring it to our shop. They're doing a thorough inspection of it. They're going to get to the bottom of that. We do not know the answer to that right now.
Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: Can I just add one thing to that? This is a routine fire, but I just want to point out a really heavy amount of smoke and fire on arrival. That's only routine because our members do such difficult work. It is not completely surprising. It's not unheard of that you would have exposure to smoke in something like this.
Like the chief mentioned, we always want to make sure when we have what we call a close call, which this is, that we investigate exactly why that happened. There will be an investigation by Safety Command.
Question: That actually answers my second question which is I know there was such heavy smoke [inaudible] second alarm, middle of the day. That seems perhaps unusual [inaudible] suspicious, perhaps a battery issue?
Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: Not at this time. It is under investigation, so we will know more once the fire marshals are able to get into the building. We don't have any early indications of that, though.
Question: Can you talk about cyanide poisoning and the fact that they treated him right away for that, is that something that’s normal in a fire like this?
Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: Yes, so hydroxocobalamin is administered when we believe someone might even have smoke exposure because it is so powerful, and the sooner they use it, the more likely it is to save a life. It is really a miracle drug. The drug itself is fairly new, not brand new. It's not something we've always had. We have seen it do tremendous things, civilians and firefighters alike, now that it's something that EMS has and uses regularly.
Question: Another question from that. Now that he is alert, is it safe to say that he’s good to go…
Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: He's going to be okay. He certainly has a road ahead of him. He's not comfortable. As you can imagine, this is a very serious injury, but there's nothing that happened to him that's going to be a lasting injury. He will recover.
Question: How does the drug work.
Chief John Nevins, Emergency Medical Services, Fire Department: Yes. Hydroxocobalamin works by blocking cyanide at the cellular level, and by blocking that, the person's body is able to continue to function. That treatment, along with the oxygen that's being provided by the EMS members helps the person to continue to work.
Question: Could you just give an overview of the care and procedures and anything more specific that you can share about general care, not about the [inaudible].
Dr. Anthony Scoccimarro, Medical Toxicology, Health + Hospitals/Jacobi: In general, in a fire like this, you would expect potential exposure to both carbon monoxide as a combustion product and also cyanide, depending on the materials that are in the fire itself. In those cases, like we've already said, hydroxocobalamin is very effective at treatment, and there's really no potential for long-term complications once treatment is completed. Carbon monoxide, a little bit more difficult to prognosticate. The treatment that we provide, hyperbaric oxygen, should really decrease long-term [inaudible] complications. Yes, that's why we give those treatments in general.
Question: Is the firefighter in the chamber right now?
Dr. Jessica Wang, Director, Hyperbaric Medicine Health + Hospitals/Jacobi: I'm Jessica Wang. I'm the hyperbaric director here at Jacobi. The patient has been treated with our standard protocol for carbon monoxide poisoning protocol. He tolerated treatment well, and he's now up in the [inaudible] in ICU. Thank you.
Question: One clarification on the drug itself. You said it was administered by EMS, is it similar to like Narcan where it’s administered once…
Dr. Scoccimarro: In most scenarios, one dose is enough. Rarely, uncommonly, we might need to re-dose it. Usually, beyond a second dose is very uncommon. Typically, the one dose by EMS is adequate.
###
Media Contact
pressoffice@cityhall.nyc.gov
(212) 788-2958