For Belinda Medina, the July 27 fire that killed her 75-year old neighbor produced more than a small miracle as a mysterious off-duty fire fighter helped guide her out of the smoke filled hallway onto the street before vanishing from site.
“I don’t know who he is but I would like to thank him,” Medina said.
The blaze, which gutted the three floor building and has required her to live with family members until she, her husband and two children can find a new home, was started when a electric heater on the second floor apparently caught fire. The fire or smoke killed Better Jane Di Renna and might have done the same to Medina and her husband had the fire fighter now held a flash light at the bottom of the smoky stairs to guide out.
This was about 9 a.m. and the two fire fighters from Jersey City were apparently passing the building on Kennedy Boulevard near 17th Street when they noticed smoke coming out of the windows.
“It was very fortunate that my children were out of the house,” said the 39-year-old Medina, noting that her Nephew noticed the smoke. Her husband and nephew were watching TV. She was sleeping, but went to the window to look.
There wasn’t time to waste, and so barefoot, she fled the third floor apartment with husband and nephew.
“My husband woke me out my sleep, then pushed me out the door,” she said. “But when I got to the stairs they were filled with smoke.
To exit the building, Medina and her husband had to take a narrow stairs to a door on street level three floors down. The smoke, she said, made it impossible for anyone to come up the stairs to get them, but the mysterious off-duty fire fighter stood near the door waiving a flash light to guide the couple out.
“I remember I kept crying out, help me, help me, I can’t breathe and I can’t see,” she said. “Once we were within arms length he yanked us out of the building. I rolled onto the sidewalk. When I got up again, the Bayonne Fire Department was there. We kept telling them that there was an old lady still inside.”
The fire department began a search to determine where the woman might be and later discovered that the woman had died earlier most likely from the smoke.
For Medina, it was a miracle.
“If this had happened at night, none of us would have made it out alive,” she said.
Still walking in a fog after the rescue, she looked around for the off duty fire fighter who had saved her life. But he was gone, and she didn’t get his name.
“I’m very grateful and I would like to thank him,” she said, and asked if anyone with any information to his identity to call the Bayonne Community News at 201-437-2460 Meanwhile, Medina and her family are living at her sister’s house.
“My husband goes to work, but we’re looking for a place to live,” she said. My kids don’t talk about it. They’re holding it in. I think they’re trying to be strong for me. I’m the one they’re worried about.”
For Medina, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to her.
“We have always had a roof over our heads,” she said.
While the Red Cross have given her vouchers for food and the BEOF may soon reach out to help them as well, Medina said it is a very emotional experience.
“What died in that house for me was my pride,” she said. “We’ve always worked for what we wanted, and now we have to get a home.”
Contact Al Sullivan at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com