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A nurse from Virginia who has been volunteering in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic was reunited with the FDNY firefighter who saved her life nearly four decades ago.
In December 1983, Deirdre Taylor, then 4 years old, was trapped with her mother in a burning fourth-floor loft in Manhattan. FDNY firefighter Eugene Pugliese had been checking water pipes in SoHo when he heard about the blaze and leaped into action.
“I didn’t even have gear on,” he told the New York Daily News. "I had a helmet and an ax. We took the elevator up, and we went to the floor below. We went upstairs. The hallway was pretty well charged. There was a lot of smoke.”
Pugliese was able to pull Taylor's mother into another room, and his fellow firefighters were able to get her out of the building. Taylor's mother, however, pleaded with Pugliese to brave the flames and rescue her unconscious child.
“I gave her two quick breaths, and she started crying, which is a good sign,” he told the Daily News.
Taylor suffered burns and smoke inhalation that day. But more importantly, she carried her memory of the rescue and a mission to thank the firefighter who saved her.
“The fire obviously shaped the rest of my life,” said Taylor, now 40 and whose family moved away from New York City. "I always knew I was given a second chance at life."
Since the pandemic, Taylor has returned to Manhattan to help as a nurse on the front lines of COVID-19. And on Monday, she was finally able to connect with her rescuer.
"You’ve been on my wall for 25 years,” said Pugliese, referring not only to a newspaper about the fire, but also the valor medal he received for the rescue.
The firefighter also was quick to point out Taylor's own selfless contributions as a nurse, too.
“You turned out to be a wonderful young woman," said Pugliese, who is 75 and retired. "You’re a hero, too.”
