The off-duty firefighter was driving to his home in Brookfield when he came across the burning vehicle on Route 7.
BROOKFIELD, Conn. — A New York firefighter’s quick thinking helped save a Brookfield woman from a burning vehicle after a crash early Saturday morning, officials said.
Crews were called to Route 7 near the Junction Road overpass around 3:13 a.m. Saturday morning to a report of a single-vehicle car crash with fire and entrapment. When they arrived, they found a vehicle fully engulfed in flames and a bystander removing the injured driver.
The bystander was Nicholas Perri Jr., an off-duty White Plains, N.Y. firefighter, who came across the crash while headed to his home in Brookfield.
“Without the protection of gear or a hose line, he gained access to the well involved vehicle and successfully removed the badly female injured driver as the flames were entering the passenger compartment,” the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Company said in a Facebook post.
Perri then carried the woman to the awaiting emergency medical responders, who treated her before taking her to Danbury Hospital. The off-duty firefighter was treated at the scene for minor injuries and refused to be taken to the hospital.
Officials said the jacket Perri was wearing was burned from the fire.
“If not for the courageous actions of Mr. Perri, the operator would have burned to death in her vehicle,” the fire company said. “His actions are a testament to him, the White Plains FD and the fire service as a whole.”
It took firefighters more than 90 minutes to put out the fire.
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