NYPD officers Brian Coffey (left) and John Maderik (right) saved a woman and her 2-year-old grandson from a fire in their Queens home Thursday.
Two police officers rescued a woman and her 2-year-old grandson from a blaze in their Queens home Thursday.
Officers John Maderik and Brian Coffey ran in through the South Ozone Park home’s front door after a passing motorist alerted to the flames inside. Upstairs, they discovered the grandmother, 56, who was disoriented, in a smoky room looking for her belongings.
“When you’re up there, you can’t see what’s going on,” Maderik said. “In the first couple of seconds, smoke gets in your lungs and it becomes very difficult to breathe. We had to get in and out of there pretty quickly.”
The cops shepherded the grandmother and toddler out of the building and then rushed back inside, kicking in the door of an apartment on the first floor to make sure nobody was left behind.
When asked whether or not he would do it again, Maderik, who has spent 30 years on the job, said “of course, you never know if anyone is still up there.”
Coffey has been on the job for 16 years.
Both of them became Neighborhood Coordination Officers when the program began in their 106 Precinct Monday.