One year after a FDNY firefighter took on heroic feats to rescue dozens of residents from a Bronx apartment building fire, they also recall the tragedy they responded to.
On Jan. 9, 2021, Bronx firefighters were dispatched to the Twin Park apartment building and, within hours, more than a dozen people were killed and scores were rescued as smoke filled the high-rise building.
“We were dealing with so many worst case scenarios,” Capt. John Hunt told News12. “It looked like a battlefield.”
“It’s almost like a tornado that you’re going into,” said Hunt. “Very acrid, thick smoke that’s stuck right to your face inside, right to the thermal imaging camera to the point where I couldn’t see.”
Firefighters rescued 64 residents that morning.
“Normally, when you go to a fire, you report in with your tools, equipment, hose, and everything, we didn’t need any of that, we needed staffing, people to do CPR, to carry people, to pull people downstairs,” said Battalion Chief Jeffrey Facinelli said. “So it really transitioned from a fire operation to a mass casualty incident at that point.”
“Even when they first get the phone call about how many critically injured patients there were, I had to ask them to repeat themselves a couple of times. You just don’t hear that,” FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh recalled.
