NYC sanitation workers rescue family from burning apartment and then finish their route

ByDarla Miles WABC logo

Friday, May 28, 2021

Sanitation workers rescue family from burning apartment

Last Saturday morning, two veteran sanitation workers saw a second-floor apartment on fire and jumped into action.

BENSONHURST (WABC) -- Last Saturday morning, two veteran sanitation workers saw a second-floor apartment on fire and jumped into action.

"You'd think an ordinary day would be garbage trucks, but in these streets you see everything," Robert Febles said. "When we actually pulled up to the corner the smoke was billowing out the building, but what kinda caught our attention was the lady screaming help."

The intersection of New Utrecht Avenue and 68th Street in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn is where Febles and George Lesiaine turned into superheroes.

The city workers, never trained as FDNY fire and rescue, yet they did it like pros.

"Not even a conversation, me and my partner just locked eyes, like we know what to do," Lesiaine said.

"Simultaneously, we just like jolted out of the truck and ran up to the lady," Febles said.

"I asked her, is anybody up there? Someone's there! My mother! And we just ran. And it was just dark, that's all I can remember," Lesiaine said.

First, they helped a young mother and her two children out, but the grandmother was still inside.

"I guess she was trying to get out but she was just reaching. She grabbed on to me, I grabbed on to her and we got her to the door," Lesiaine said.

They all got out okay. All in a day's work for these uncaped crusaders.

"After that, we just completed our route, just like a regular day," Lesiaine said.

"We got the best job, the department of sanitation New York City. They take care of us, and they love us. We take care of them, they take care of us. It's incredible," Febles said.

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