28-Year-Old Soldier Home for the Holidays Died Rescuing Neighbors in Bronx Apartment Fire

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A 28-year-old soldier who was home for the holidays died rescuing his neighbors on Thursday in New York’s deadliest blaze in more than 25 years, officials said.

Emmanuel Mensah was killed trying to pull neighbors out of his burning apartment building, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Saturday.

“His heroism exemplifies the best of our city. Rest in peace,” the mayor said.

A child playing with a kitchen stove started the fire and it quickly spread through the 29-unit building. The fire killed at least 12 people, including four children.

Mensah joined the Army National Guard one year ago so he could help others, according to his father, Kwabena Mensah.

It came as little surprise to him that his son came to the aid of others.

“That’s his nature: He wants to help people out,” Mensah told CNN on Friday. At the time, his son’s death had not been confirmed but he had little hope for his survival.

“As a father, you always have to feel sad when you get such news about your son, and I thought maybe he’s coming back,” Mensah said. “But unfortunately it turns out the other way.”

Emmanuel Mensah was stationed in Virginia, his father said.

A private first class in the New York National Guard, he had just graduated from boot camp after starting basic training in the fall and was slated to go to advanced individual training in 2018, spokesman Eric Durr said. He was training to be a military police officer, a role that offers a variety of potential responsibilities, from garrison law enforcement to security in the field.

This visit was his first back to the Bronx in the year since he enlisted in the National Guard, his father said. He was in his apartment when the fire broke out.

A 3-year-old boy’s screams alerted his mother that a fire had erupted in their apartment in the building’s first floor. The boy was playing with the burners on the kitchen stove, officials said. As his mother fled the burning apartment with him and his sibling, she left the apartment door open, a mistake that would prove fatal.

Each time someone opened a window, oxygen rushed into the building, fanning the flames. The apartment’s stairway acted like a chimney as the fire burst from the apartment, feeding the flames and allowing them to spread throughout the building, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.

Kwabena Mensah learned from others that his son helped others to safety. He went out and back twice, but “on the third time he couldn’t find his way out,” he said.

“I thought as a military man he may have gotten out already,” he said Friday. “But like I said, God is in control.”

from KTLA http://ift.tt/2lu14gv