Skip to Content

NYC sanitation workers rescue family from burning apartment and then finish their route

Click here for updates on this story

    BENSONHURST (WABC) — Last Saturday morning, two veteran sanitation workers saw a second-floor apartment on fire and jumped into action.

“You’d think an ordinary day would be garbage trucks, but in these streets you see everything,” Robert Febles said. “When we actually pulled up to the corner the smoke was billowing out the building, but what kinda caught our attention was the lady screaming help.”

The intersection of New Utrecht Avenue and 68th Street in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn is where Febles and George Lesiaine turned into superheroes.

The city workers, never trained as FDNY fire and rescue, yet they did it like pros.

“Not even a conversation, me and my partner just locked eyes, like we know what to do,” Lesiaine said.

“Simultaneously, we just like jolted out of the truck and ran up to the lady,” Febles said.

“I asked her, is anybody up there? Someone’s there! My mother! And we just ran. And it was just dark, that’s all I can remember,” Lesiaine said.

First, they helped a young mother and her two children out, but the grandmother was still inside.

“I guess she was trying to get out but she was just reaching. She grabbed on to me, I grabbed on to her and we got her to the door,” Lesiaine said.

They all got out okay. All in a day’s work for these uncaped crusaders.

“After that, we just completed our route, just like a regular day,” Lesiaine said.

“We got the best job, the department of sanitation New York City. They take care of us, and they love us. We take care of them, they take care of us. It’s incredible,” Febles said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

Article Topic Follows: National-World

Jump to comments ↓

Author Profile Photo

CNN Newsource

BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION

KIFI Local News 8 is committed to providing a forum for civil and constructive conversation.

Please keep your comments respectful and relevant. You can review our Community Guidelines by clicking here

If you would like to share a story idea, please submit it here.

Skip to content