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Firefighters Rescue Unconscious Man from Burning Home Without Gear

HAUPPAYGE, NY – With screams for help and visible flames shooting from the rear of a neighbor’s house early Monday morning, two volunteers from the Hauppauge Fire Department rescued an unconscious neighbor from the home with an assist from a Good Samaritan, witnesses and fire officials said.

All done without benefit of protective gear.

Steve Webber, 28, was returning home from an evening out when he came upon Village Lane and found neighbor Michael Mastandrea on the front lawn of the Hauppauge home screaming that his father was trapped inside a second-floor bedroom in the burning home.

“He was pleading for me to help,” Webber said. “In that moment I had no fear. I just reacted and did what I could.”

After he helped Mastandrea place a ladder near the bedroom’s window, Webber quickly climbed the ladder and saw the man gasping for air.

Meanwhile, Tommy Kriklava, 21, who has been with the Hauppauge Fire Department for six years, was on his way to the firehouse on Wheeler Road to join with other firefighters to respond to the fire, which had been reported at 1:28 a.m.

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But when he passed the burning home, which is around the corner from his own, he quickly ditched the idea.

“I saw the flames and the son on the front lawn screaming for help,” Kriklava said. “I just did what I was trained to do.”

Kriklava climbed the ladder set up by Webber and Mastandrea, entered the room through a window and found an unconscious Dominick Mastandrea, 77, on the floor by the window.

Minutes later, First Assistant Chief Raymond Germaine, who also lives nearby and did not have time to get his gear, entered the room. He helped Kriklava get Mastandrea to Webber and other firefighters who had arrived on scene.

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