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by JEFF HARRELL
You don't have to tell Firefighter Eddie Cowan what teamwork means.
The Egbertville resident and his fellow firefighters from Squad 1 in Brooklyn and other companies helped save the lives of five people in a raging fire in Park Slope on Monday.
"We pride ourselves on team effort," Cowan told the Advance yesterday.
Cowan, 31, was on shift when a call came in to Squad 1 at 5:30 a.m. Monday that a fire had engulfed an apartment building at 852 Classon Ave.
When firefighters from the squad and Ladder Co. 113 arrived, they were met with fire in a stairwell, flames shooting from a rooftop, and a lady screaming, Cowan said.
With Firefighter Mike Stackpole, Cowan climbed a fire escape and broke through a window. Despite thick smoke and "maybe two feet of visibility," he found a door.
"I didn't know it was a bedroom," he said.
Inside, with household items melting around him, he found 16-year-old Joseph Williams. While he led the teen-ager to safety, other firefighters, including those from Ladder Co. 113, were rescuing three children -- ages 11, 9 and 2 -- who were found unconscious on the floor.
Cowan also helped carry Lisa Hervieaux-Lovett, 39, mother of one of the children, down a charred main staircase to safety.
Meanwhile, firefighters from Engine Co. 280, Ladder 113 and Ladder Co. 132 were outside putting water on the fire and helping to create a path for Cowan and his mates to get the injured residents out.
"I just happened to be the first guy into that room," Cowan said. "I benefited from those companies doing a fantastic job."
"We're only good when we work together as a team," he added. "That's when we can do great things."
Outside the building, firefighters and paramedics performed CPR on the victims. All five were hospitalized -- three in New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope and two in Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx, according to a FDNY spokesman.
Jacobi is the only hospital in the city with an emergency hyperbaric chamber that can hold more than one person. The chamber provides oxygen therapy for patients who are suffering from smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning, among other uses.
But all five were still alive, thanks to Cowan and the other firefighters, including Stackpole, whose brother, Tim, was killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Cowan, who counts several colleagues lost at Ground Zero as friends, said that while fighting fires and rescuing people trapped in burning buildings is hardly routine, it's part of the job description.
"Training is definitely a big part of it," he said. "The training keeps us ready to go to work. But you always do get that adrenaline rush."
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