Firefighter Seriously Burned During Rescue

A firefighter engulfed in flames was pulled to safety out a third-floor window of a Brooklyn brownstone Monday morning in a dramatic rescue that stunned witnesses.

He had been searching the empty apartment for trapped occupants when the whole third floor erupted, shooting flames and shrapnel out the window.

The firefighter, from Rescue 2 in Crown Heights, was taken to Cornell University Medical Center in Manhattan with burns over 42 percent of his body, fire officials said.

"It was crazy ... The firefighter was about to jump [and] he was screaming like crazy," said Victor Vargas, 25, who works at a neighboring deli.

Video taken by a witness shows a fellow firefighter slowly, but methodically, pulling his flame-covered colleague out from the window onto a truck ladder some three stories in the air, while red and orange flames shoot from the building and debris rains down below.

It took about an hour to bring the blaze under control.

"One firefighter appeared at the window with heavy fire and he escaped down the ladder. He was the most seriously injured," said Edward Baggott, an FDNY deputy assistant chief.

The firefighter was sedated, but breathing on his own, and was in critical condition.

Another firefighter was also taken to Cornell in serious condition, and two others had minor injuries

Investigators do not believe the fire is suspicious, and the home -- which is owned by a city school teacher and her family -- was not occupied at the time .Read more: NYPost