By FireRescue1 Staff
NEW YORK — Two probationary FDNY firefighters saved a man attempting to jump off a bridge on their way to the academy.
New York Post reported that Richard Vergara saw the man while driving down the RFK bridge. Vergara called 911 and used his training as a Marine and former cop to jump into action.
“He had one leg over, he just had to get the other leg over. When I saw him, I ran over to him and ripped him off the wall,” Vergara said. “I said, ‘Hey, stop! What are you doing?’ I knew he wanted to commit suicide at that point so the first thing you do is make sure he doesn’t kill himself.”
Fellow probationary firefighter Raunedys Pena saw the situation unfolding and stopped to help.
“As soon as I got to the scene, I asked him if everything is alright, he told me he needed a little bit of assistance, so I jumped out of my car and I helped him with whatever I could help him with,” Pena said.
Pena comforted the man, who didn’t know English, by speaking with him in Spanish.
“He told me he had a lot of problems that he didn’t want to be here. I just talked him through it, trying to comfort him.”
Even after the incident, the firefighters made it to their 5:45 a.m. drill on time.
“Every morning you wake up and you don’t know what you’re going to encounter but you have to be ready for anything,” Pena said.
https://twitter.com/FDNY/status/898253910082691072