November 12, 2004 -- "I thank God for you."
With those simple words, a 75-year-old blind Bronx woman gave her heartfelt thanks to a firefighter who rescued her from certain death in a smoky apartment.
"I didn't know how I was going to get out. I could smell the smoke, hear the wood burning and I thought I was going to die there," Marion Gaines said yesterday.
The dramatic rescue took place at 3:20 a.m. Wednesday after a blaze broke out at 1178 E. 221st St. in Baychester, a building where Gaines has lived for 29 years.
The widowed grandmother - who has been blind for 44 years - was trapped inside her third-floor apartment, which was filling with smoke.
Richard Donovan, 38, a 14-year FDNY veteran with Ladder 51, heard Gaines' cries, smashed the glass with one of his tools, squeezed through the window frame and found the pajama-clad woman disoriented in the acrid smoke.
