February 20, 2004 -- Happy to finally be walking on his own, firefighter Joseph Lennon clutched his wife's hand and left the hospital yesterday - his voice still husky from the smoke he swallowed and his body painfully sore after surgery to help mend his severe burns.
Lennon, 35, who rushed into a firestorm Feb. 1, barely survived the cauldron of smoke and flames in a Bedford-Stuyvesant building set ablaze by an arsonist.
Nearly three weeks later, he received the best possible medicine from his dozens of brother firefighters - their thunderous applause, heartfelt hugs and smiles of gratitude that he made it.
At first, too overwhelmed with emotion to speak, the five-year veteran simply wiped his eyes and clung to the podium at New York Hospital.
With a pat of encouragement from his wife, Marie, he found his words.
"I'd like to thank my guys from [Ladder] 111 who dragged me out," he said. "Standing behind me are some of the greatest firefighters in the entire world. I would not be here today if it were not for them."
Lennon described how he lost consciousness, but never lost faith, when something knocked his mask askew after he rushed into 93 Macon St. not knowing the building was empty.
He started sucking in carbon monoxide and knew he didn't have much time.
He thought, "I'd better get to the stairs or they're never going to find me. [But] when the smoke got the better of me, I went down.
"I knew my brothers were coming to get me. I knew they'd be there."
The arsonist who nearly took Lennon's life is still on the loose.
During his hospital stay, he was bedridden for seven days straight, spent time in a hyperbaric chamber for smoke inhalation and had grafts to replace the charred skin on his back and right buttocks.
He thanked the hospital staff, saying the doctors and nurses saved his life.
Lennon, who has been married for "91/2 glorious years," was eager to go home with his wife.
His immediate future includes reading a good book, staying off his right buttock per his doctor's orders and healing in the compression suit he'll have to wear for a whole year to help the skin taken from his leg adhere to his back and backside.
"It's a very humbling experience," he said. "It puts the whole world in perspective."
One thing that hasn't changed is his love for the job.
"I can't wait," he said of the day he'll be back in the firehouse.
"It really is a calling," he said. "I cannot wait."
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