QUEENS, N.Y. — A recently retired firefighter died Monday after saving his wife and tenants from a house fire.
PIX11.com reported that the fire broke out on the second floor of the two-story home around 9 a.m. Andre Reid, who had recently retired from firefighting in Haiti, moved to New York three months shy of his 70th birthday.
“My mother told me she couldn’t break the window,” Marie Robinson, Reid’s daughter, said. “He broke it for her. My mother said she thought he would follow her but he didn’t.”
Firefighters found Reid in apparent cardiac arrest in a second-story bedroom. Crews transported him to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Tenants credited Reid for his swift and heroic actions.
“He told us to get out of the house,” one neighbor said. “He’s a very generous person … he cares about his family a lot.”
Eight firefighters also suffered minor injuries, FDNY Deputy Fire Michael Ajello said.
The fire remains under investigation, but authorities believe it was sparked accidentally.