Searing flames erupted within seconds after FDNY Lt. Richard Buckheit -- a decorated 16-year veteran who once helped rescue three little girls from a burning apartment -- got behind the wheel of the car to try to drive it to a safer spot in Flatbush late Sunday.
"We just heard 'Boom!' and the car went up in the air. There were a lot of flames and smoke," said Anmarie Williams, 34, who saw the incident.
Buckheit, 40, had been rushing to the aid of Pablo Mejia, 25, who called the FDNY shortly after midnight when he saw thick smoke billowing from a manhole directly beneath his girlfriend's 2007 Honda Accord, parked near his home on Lincoln Road.
"The firefighters got there, and I asked, 'Can I move my car?' [Buckheit] said, 'It's not safe. I'll do it,' " Mejia said.
"He took my keys and got in, and right when he tried to back up, that manhole exploded with him in [the car]."
Buckheit -- who suffered first-degree burns to his neck and face and second-degree burns to his left hand and ear -- was recovering yesterday at the burn unit at New York Hospital.
He told The Post from his hospital bed, "When you are in that situation, a hundred questions pop into your head, but I couldn't let [Mejia] move the car -- it wasn't safe. I thought I had enough time to move the car, which I guess I didn't."
As the manhole exploded, Buckheit said he first thought was, "Get out as quickly as possible, and then, is this going to lead to a fatality?
"I got out of there quickly because of my guys," he said, praising his comrades at Engine Co. 249 who pulled him out.
But Mejia said Buckheit is the one who deserves a commendation.
"If that would have been me, I would have been dead," he said.
Buckheit comes from a long line of smokeaters: His two grandfathers were retired FDNY battalion chiefs, and his father is a retired firefighter.
He also is no stranger to heroism: He was one of two Bravest who in 2007 pulled three small girls from a burning apartment.
Republished with permission of The New York Post
