NY firefighter saves man from burning van on I-95

NEW YORK — A New York City firefighter is being hailed as a hero after saving a man from a smoldering van on his way home from vacation.

FDNY Capt. Ciro Napolitano and his wife were driving along Interstate 95 near Woodbine when the saw smoke.

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When they got near the crash scene, Napolitano saw what was going on and leapt into action.

"(I) ran out like 10 feet in front, saw what was going on, went to the back of the car because I keep a crowbar and some gloves back there," Napolitano told WABC-TV.

Napolitano is a 30-year veteran of the fire department. With the car about to burst into flames, he knew he had to work fast to save the man inside.

"It was a bad trauma. He was bleeding from the head - his legs were pinned under the dashboard and steering wheel," Napolitano said. "Eventually, we got him free."

Napolitano’s wife, Antoinetta, said to see her husband work first-hand as a first responder was surreal.

"I'm very proud of him but at the same time I was very scared for him," she said. "He's going in and out of this car, it's lighting up all the time, the smoke. But he's a first responder. Nobody would've walked away from that."

Wednesday, as the Brooklyn native's family paid him a visit at his Upper West Side firehouse, he reflected on what touched him the most.

Ciro Napolitano said what surprised him the most about the incident was the phone call he got from the victim’s mother.

"I never had it happen before, the mother called me the next day and she couldn't stop thanking me that I had saved her son, she told me I was an angel," he said. "I told her, 'Ma'am I'm not angel. I only did what my heart told me to do and what I was trained to do.'"

Cox Media Group