FDNY Firefighter Dominick Muschello knew he didn’t have any time to spare when he rolled up with Tower Ladder 157 as first-due in front of a three-story Brooklyn rowhouse with fire blowing out the three windows on the second floor.
Civilians were dragging a badly burned man down the stairs by his ankles and screaming there were more people inside – trapped. It was just after midnight on the coldest night of the season thus far last November.
“It was just one of those times when we knew we had our hands full,” Muschello said. “We knew we had to do something fast. It was a legit second alarm. It was a legit fire.”
He had to get inside and help with the rescue efforts and the only way to do it was put the tower ladder straight through the flames bellowing out the second floor to make entry to the third floor where he knew people were trapped.
Muschello's fast actions and willingness to risk his life saved a pregnant woman and a 15-year-old boy from certain death.
For his actions, Muschello, a 22-year veteran of FDNY, earned Firehouse Magazine’s top honor in its annual Firehouse Heroism & Community Service Awards program.
He was also honored just last week at FDNY’s annual Medal Day, the first time he has earned the recognition in his career. In fact, those who witnessed Muschello’s actions thought they were going to be attending an LODD funeral much less attending an awards ceremony honoring his bravery.
From when Muschello first arrived on the scene on at Box 2446 on Flatbush Avenue, it was obvious fire had taken control of the building, tearing through stairwells and hallways blocking most exits from the building. Muschello, as the chauffeur of Ladder 157 knew what he had to do – make entry to the third floor.
“Fortunately, the wind was blowing to the right, away from me, a little which helped,” Muschello said.
Meanwhile, other members of the crew were trying to make entry. A plastic awning over the first floor commercial entrance had lit up from the heat on the second floor and started raining molten, flaming material on the firefighter trying to take the front door forcing his retreat, thwarting another attempt to make entry.
Muschello made it to a third floor window and made entry, above the fire in a room with zero visibility. And, he had no idea what he was climbing into.
Critical dispatch information was never conveyed to the firefighters because the alert for fire came in verbally to the fire station conveyed by a young boy who ran to the fire station and told Muschello a building was on fire down the street. Muschello estimated it was about six blocks away and smoke and flames were visible then.
Because the report was received directly by the fire station, those responding didn’t know it had been illegally chopped up into SROs. They also didn’t know there were hoarder, or “Collier’s Mansion” conditions inside.
That’s all information Muschello wishes he had when he climbed into the third-floor window looking for victims.
“I got into the third floor and started doing a right wall search,” Muschello said. “I made it into the deadman’s room and didn’t find any body. I opened the door into the hallway and had floor to ceiling flames in the hallway. That’s when I called for a line on the third floor quick.”
As he continued to search, his efforts were hampered by lots of furniture and contents in the rooms. As he looked toward the front of the building he noticed fire near the windows.
“I thought it was the curtains that had caught fire from flames coming up from the second floor,” Muschello said. “It was about the size of a garbage can on fire.” It didn’t take him long to realize the fire had burned through the floor and conditions were getting worse.
About the same time, he found a large, very pregnant woman face down on the floor, not responsive.
He radioed that he had found a victim and needed more help. As he was struggling to get the woman to the window, he heard someone take the door into the apartment.
“Our nozzleman had done a heck of a job and knocked down the fire so they could make the stairs,” he recalled.
Firefighter Brian Clifford, with Ladder 147, broke into the room and Muschello, spent from trying to bring the woman to the window through the hoarder conditions, called out for help. By that time, the fire in the occupied room was showing signs of impending flashover.
“Brian got up to me and said we didn’t have much time and the room was about to light up,” Muschello said, agreeing with his colleague’s assessment. “Just as we got the woman into the bucket, the room lit up and it kind of chased out the window.”
By then, more personnel had showed up at the scene, and Muschello told the operator at the pedestal of his ladder to take it down.
“I flip the woman over and started CPR right there,” he said. “After a couple of puffs of smoke came out, she started breathing on her own again.”
As the stars had been aligned all night long, an EMS crew with a cot was passing by just as they hit the ground and the woman was handed off for medical care.
But Muschello’s work wasn’t done.
Knowing there were other likely victims, he went back up to the third floor and started another search. Crews had sufficiently knocked down the fire in the third floor apartment for a secondary search.
“I knew my way around in there a little better the second time,” Muschello said. Knowing where he had searched and where he hadn’t helped with the second search.
It was in an unsearched area that he found a second victim, a 15-year-old boy. Muschello said that even though the area where the teen was found had likely experienced some heavy fire, the boy was sheltered by the furniture in the room and was facing away. Although he was burned and suffered smoke inhalation, Muschello said he must have been overcome by smoke before the fire because he suffered no airway burns.
Following the same path as his previous rescue, Muschello brought the boy to the window and into the bucket, performing CPR on the way down, and successfully reviving the boy before handing him off to EMS.
As the fire wound down, and the operations moved from rescue to extinguish and overhaul, Muschello reflected briefly on the events.
“My battalion chief came up to me and asked me if I was the guy in the window when the room flashed,” Muschello said, adding he acknowledged his whereabouts and actions. “He said; ‘That was incredible. I thought we were all going to a funeral.’” The chief said he was going to write it up for a commendation. Muschello demurred that his whole team and everybody at the scene deserved credit for a job well done.
“I think if it had been just a few minutes more, given the time of day and the conditions, it would have been a lot worse,” Muschello said.
Unfortunately, there was one fatality, the man who lived where the fire started, and six critically injured.
That may have been the headline the next day, but what news reports didn’t fully get was there were at least 37 people living in very hazardous conditions in a building that had been cited for multiple violations. And there were some incredible rescues made.
Muschello, whose father was also an FDNY firefighter, said it feels good to be recognized for doing a good job.
“It’s humbling,” Muschello said. “It’s really nice to be recognized. You work hard your whole career and you might not get anything like this. It’s nice to be rewarded for hard work.”
He said last week's Medal Day was one of the best days in his life. “It was good for me, it was good for my family, my boys who are 17 and 19, and my firehouse.”
While the Flatbush Avenue fire was memorable for lots of reasons, including making two great saves, it wasn’t the only memorable event in his career.
He was on duty and watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center from his fire station and was on the first due truck after the second tower was hit.
He was there when seven Jewish children perished in a Brooklyn house fire earlier this year.
But he takes solace and is filled with great pride for being able to do the job he does.
“I have the best job in the world working at the best and busiest firehouse in the City,” he said. “I can’t ask for more.”
