Firefighter saves teen from fire in Yonkers

He risked his life to save a teenage girl, but Yonkers Fire Department Lieutenant Danny Nee says it was just another day on the job.

“You see a 16 year-old girl hanging out of the window, you gotta get to her and get her out of the apartment” Nee said.

The Yonkers Fire Department received a call from a teenager just after 10 a.m. Friday morning. She was woken up out of a dead sleep, trapped inside this burning third floor Bronx River Road apartment. 

“We made it to the bedroom just based on having seen her hanging from the window, took my mask off, threw it on her”

He tells us he took his mask off because she needed it more than he did.

“You could see the terror in her eyes, she had woken up to a smoke-filled apartment, it was scary” Nee said.

He credits his training and the help of his guys.

“That's what we train for, that's what we're here for. We were happy to have the opportunity to get someone's 16-year-old's daughter home for Christmas today.”

But Nee, who is also an Iraqi War veteran, stops short of calling himself a hero. Instead, he says he was just in the right place, at the right time.

“I’m proud of the way I handled it, the Yonkers Fire Department, it's a good day for the fire department, I'm very happy” he said.

As for the 16-year-old girl, she was taken to Jacobi Medical Center and is expected to fully recover. The cause of fire is still under investigation. Authorities say it appears to be accidental.