by JENNIFER FERMINO
The flames were intensifying around firefighter Victor
Rosa when he found the little victim — and he was
struck instantly by how "familiar" the tiny child
seemed. The eight-year FDNY veteran's job that cold December
night in Jackson Heights last year was to set up
ladders against the burning six-story building, rescue
people from windows and search for trapped victims. He'd entered a third-story window, a floor above the
apartment where a candle had accidentally started the
massive fire. "I heard reports of multiple people trapped," said the
married 34 year-old father of two. "I didn't know
where. So I masked up, got down on my hands and knees,
and proceeded into the hallway. The fire was 15 feet
away." Soon enough, he found one woman, Lena Martinez —
barely conscious and badly burnt. After he got her out of the hallway, Rosa returned to
the expanding inferno, and pulled another woman out —
Flora Piñeda, 36. After he dragged her to safety, he
returned and came across the littlest burn victim —
almost the same age as his boy, Victor Anthony. "I picked her up and it was like the familiar weight
of my son," he said of Alexandra Sandovar, 4. "Once I
had her, there was no way I was letting her go until I
was out of the building." Of the three victims he found, two survived, including
the child, who is still recovering at St. Mary's
Hospital for Children. Sadly, her mother and father
both perished that night. For his heroism, Rosa was awarded the James Gordon
Bennett Medal, the FDNY's highest honor. He was nominated for a Bravest Liberty Medal by FDNY
official Jim Long.
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