Heroic Rescue During Brooklyn Flood

On Friday, Mayor Zoran Mamdani recognized the bravery of a man who saved a Brooklyn school principal from drowning in her car during the year’s first significant flash flood.

Travis Langan, an off-duty FDNY firefighter from Ladder 123 in Crown Heights, was honored for rescuing Carmen Pinto, who found herself trapped in a Tesla Model 3 as rising waters caused the vehicle to malfunction.

“She tried everything. She attempted to open the door, roll down the window, and even call 911, but nothing worked in time,” the mayor remarked during an event at the FDNY headquarters.

Langan recounted that he was driving home on the Jackie Robinson Parkway that night when about two inches of rain fell in under an hour. He saw several cars nearly submerged in the floodwaters.

During a call with his father, he abruptly hung up and sprang into action, trying to help those stranded.

His attention was drawn to Pinto when a bystander pointed her out. She was pressed against the sunroof of her car, visibly struggling to breathe.

“I just started throwing punches to break the glass until I made a hole large enough,” Langan explained. “She even handed me this Yeti cup, and I found myself crying while I was reaching through the sunroof.”

Langan was able to break the glass and pull Pinto to safety, expressing gratitude for her survival during their reunion at the press conference.

Pinto, who is the principal of Thaddeus Stevens Elementary School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, expressed her relief, stating, “I am so happy and so blessed that an angel was sent to me.” She touched on Langan’s selflessness, noting he could have simply gone home to his pregnant wife and daughters but chose to help instead.

Wearing a Jalen Brunson T-shirt, a nod to her love for the New York Knicks, Pinto humorously acknowledged how lucky she felt to witness her team’s journey in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. “He cut a hole in my roof and saved me, and today I got to see the Knicks again,” she said.

Mamdani commended Langan, who also has a background in the U.S. Marine Corps, for his dedication and his decisive action in that critical moment. “This is someone who instinctively helps, protects, serves, and saves,” the mayor remarked, adding that thanks to Langan’s courage, Mrs. Pinto would be enjoying dinner with her family that evening.