UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) – Dramatic video captured the harrowing rescue of an elderly man who was lowered by firefighters from the top floor of a walk-up building during a fire on the Upper East Side.
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On Thursday, that man was reunited with the FDNY heroes who saved his life. “I’m glad I’m here, thanks to the brave firefighters,” 81-year-old Jim Duffy said. Four months after the daring rescue, Duffy met the man who helped bring him down to safety after fire engulfed his fifth-floor apartment.
“I was looking out the window, and people were saying, ‘He’s coming, he’s coming,'” he said. “And then I saw him, and I said, ‘Thank God, he’s an angel.'” That angel was firefighter James Lee, who knew exactly what to do as those flames drew dangerously close.