The Jersey Journal

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — "I was terrified," Jersey City Firefighter Jose Cotty said yesterday.

The firefighter wasn't frightened by the flames or the black smoke - so dense that he and his partner, Pat Murphy, had to search the burning home by feeling along the walls and furniture.

His fear was that the 2-year-old boy they'd just carried from the burning home would die during their desperate resuscitation efforts.

"I had just rescued him from the house and I did not want to lose him now," Cotty said yesterday, speaking in front of the burned-out Orchard Street home. "I have never been that terrified before."

Cotty and Murphy, assigned to the Jersey City Fire Department's Rescue 1, were told that there was still a toddler on the second floor of the burning two-story house.

The boy's grandfather, Bill Lee, had already suffered smoke inhalation running into the home to save his 7-year-old grandson, and cuts to his hands from smashing windows in an attempt to clear the smoke; now firefighters were holding him back to prevent him from running back in after the 2-year-old.

Even as thick black smoke billowed from the front door, Cotty and Murphy ran into the burning home.

"I could see absolutely nothing," Cotty said yesterday.

As they entered a rear bedroom, Cotty realized the fire was now coming up into the room from below, giving them very little time. Cotty felt his way along one wall and Murphy the other, their flashlights useless in the heavy smoke.

Cotty groped in the dark and felt a bed, but didn't think anyone was on it.

Knowing that children sometimes try to hide from flames, he was about to lift up the bed when he touched a little hand. He pulled the child toward him.

"He was so tiny he landed on my chest," Cotty said.

The firefighters now had to feel their way back out of the burning building with an unconscious 2-year-old in Cotty's arms. Within a couple of minutes of when they'd entered the home, they were placing the unconscious Oliver Sy on the hood of a Pontiac Grand Am parked outside the house and began administering CPR.

Cotty, who has 20 years of experience as a nurse, knew there was only so much he could do for the child, who was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, smoke inhalation and from breathing super hot air.

He began giving the child oxygen, bringing color back into his face. They kept up their efforts until an ambulance arrived and rushed the boy to the Jersey City Medical Center. Authorities said last night Oliver has since been transferred to Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, where he's in critical but stable condition.

"I was nervous, but I'm very proud of him" said his wife, Sandra Cotty.

Cotty downplayed his own actions, crediting the efforts of all the firefighters who responded to the blaze.

"I was not there by myself," Cotty said. "Thanks to the other members of the fire department, I could do what I had to do."
"I had just rescued him from the house and I did not want to lose him now."

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