A woman who fell off a Coney Island pier early Monday was saved thanks to a quick, coordinated response by FDNY firefighters. Video of the rescue was captured by a bystander, who also called 9-1-1.
The incident happened just before 7 a.m. when the woman plunged from the pier and into Atlantic Ocean, WCBS-TV reports. Once she hit the water, the cold, rough waves pulled her farther away from shore.
“I was looking toward the pier. I could hear, very loud, ‘Help me! Help me!’ Someone clearly in distress,” Nancy Kaufman, the bystander who called 9-1-1 and recorded the rescue, told WCBS. “It seemed like she was holding on for dear life and someone needed to come quickly.”
That quick help came from the firefighters at Ladder 166, which has a station only minutes from the pier. Two firefighters with a rope were able to reach the woman in the water, while other first responders who were 100 feet away on land pulled them in.
“We pretty much all worked together," firefighter Andrew McGowan told WCBS. "They reach the patient and give a signal, which is tap yourself on the head. That’s the signal for us on shore to pull in, and we pulled her and grabbed her."
After she was safe on land, the woman was taken to a local hospital, and she's expected to recover. It's not known how long the woman was in the water before she was rescued, but McGowan said she was cold and shivering by the time firefighters reached her.
"She was very fortunate to have a group of heroes who came to her rescue,” Kaufman told WCBS.
