(Queens Village-WABC, Feb. 23, 2006) - Three plainclothes police officers rushed into a burning home and rescued a family in the Queens Village section of Queens from a fire that injured 14 people.
Officials say Sgt. Joseph Mallahy and officers John Roberts and Keith Ehrhart, of the Queens South Borough Crime Unit, spotted flames and smoke spewing from a single-family house at 113-14 210th Street just after 11:15 p.m. The police officers began evacuating the family as firefighters rushed to the scene. The officers had alerted firefighters before entering the house. They then assisted firefighters in escorting the two adults and two children out of the three-alarm blaze.
Eyewitness News has learned the members of the family, a 59-year-old man, 55-year-old woman, 13-year-old girl and 10-year-old girl, were all taken to Queens North General Hospital in stable condition. One other resident was also being treated at an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The three police officers are in stable condition at North Shore University Hospital. They are being treated for smoke inhalation.
Six firefighters were treated for injuries. The most serious were two burned firefighters who were rushed to the burn unit at Cornell Medical Center for treatment.
It took firefighters more than an hour to bring the fire under control. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
