Woman Rescued From Roof Of Burning Building

Husband, Bystander And FDNY Combine To Make Save

Click Here to watch a Newscast of this event from CBS2
Click Here to watch a Newscast of this event from ABC7

A woman’s husband, a stranger and three firefighters all helped to rescue a woman who was dangling from the roof of a 25-story building, forced outside because of heavy smoke.

The woman, Cherylann John, on vacation from Trinidad with her husband, Robert John, held onto his hands and those of another man on the roof, after heavy smoke engulfed the top floors of the Ebbets Field Houses at 1700 Bedford Ave. in Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Fire officials say it was a fire in a trash compactor that went up the shaft around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

With a choking smoke threatening apartment 25-P, Robert John was able to break an outside window 25 stories up, and then hoist himself out and onto the roof. Once he got to the roof, he reached for his wife, and said after the ordeal, “Well, at one point in time, I thought I’d drop her because my hand was freezing so much I couldn’t hold on much longer.”

He said another man, whose identity he did not know, ran across the roof to help. Finally, after many minutes, firefighters got to the roof. Robert John said he was lying down near the edge of the roof and thought he was in trouble. John said the firefighters were initially unaware that his wife was hanging on for dear life to a freezing cold hand on the verge of letting go. Cherylann John said, “(My husband) said, ‘Hold on.’ And I said, ‘I can’t hold on no more.’ He kept saying, ‘hold on, hold on.’”

Three firefighters, Joe Donatelli of Ladder 132, Bill Hansen of Ladder 113 and Jimmy Rail of Engine 249 anchored a roof-rope to one of the men, as Donatelli went over the rail to rescue the exhausted woman.

Cherylann John said, “He put his arm around me and I put an arm around him to hold him.” Donatelli and Cherylann were then lifted up.

Cherylann John, a mother of four, said it was an enormous relief to be hoisted to safety. It’s a New York vacation she will never forget.