An FDNY lieutenant was called into action early Saturday morning in Brooklyn when he and his wife came upon a car engulfed in flames, with the driver trapped inside.
According to FDNY Lt. Richard Cannon, the couple was driving home from a friend’s house in Staten Island to Breezy Point around 3 a.m. with their sons and daughter, ages 7 and 6, when two cars crashed. He said he passed at a high rate of speed on the Belt Parkway.
Later, as the couple approached the Bay Parkway exit, they saw the BMW and Corvette collide in the middle of the freeway and the Corvette burst into flames.
Cannon’s training began and he ran to the driver’s seat of the car.
“I tried to get the victim out of the front seat, but the side of the car was damaged and I couldn’t open the door,” said the 43-year-old man, who has worked at the police station for half of his career. Told. life. “The fire continued to grow. So I went to the passenger seat and reached over to the victim and unbuckled him.”
It was said that they had some trouble getting the man onto the center console, but they managed to pull him out.
An off-duty paramedic also pulled over and helped Cannon to the side of the road, where they both tried to reassure the unconscious man.
Cannon called FDNY dispatchers, and by then the fire department was on the scene.
His wife, Lauren Cannon, said the couple’s 7-year-old son unfortunately woke up and witnessed the crash from inside the car. The 6-year-old was unperturbed.
“You shouldn’t be doing 110mph on the Belt Parkway,” the 40-year-old said.
Her husband, from 148 Rudder in Borough Park, said he instinctively wanted to help.
“That’s what we’re doing,” Cannon said. “Someone needed help, so we helped them. I was just doing my job.”
