Hero firefighter reunites with woman he saved from submerged car during flash flood
The rescued woman, Carmen Pinto, is the principal of P.S. 81
QUEENS, New York (WABC) -- A heroic, off-duty FDNY firefighter reunited with a local school principal he rescued after flash floods swamped parts of New York City on Wednesday night.
Firefighter Travis Langan's heroism was honored by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore at FDNY headquarters on Friday afternoon.
Langan was on the Jackie Robinson Parkway in Queens on Wednesday, when he spotted P.S. 81 Principal Carmen Pinto trapped in her car, which was almost completely submerged.
He was able to pull her out of the car's sunroof, a daring rescue that was captured in photos.
"I was trying to keep my head as close to the sunroof as possible because the water had come up that far, and then I saw Travis," Pinto said.
"I got a big enough hole, and she actually handed me this Yeti cup, and I just started wailing away with the Yeti cup, and I started ripping the glass," Langan said.
Pinto finally got the chance to meet face-to-face with her hero on Friday, this time under far calmer conditions.
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