Biden honoring FDNY heroes who saved New Yorkers from burning buildings with Medal of Valor

WASHINGTON — Retiring President Biden will current the Medal of Valor Friday to 2 FDNY heroes who saved New Yorkers from raging fires.

Biden, 82, will current the nation’s highest award for public security officers to Lt. John Vanderstar and firefighter Brendan Gaffney.

Vanderstar rushed into motion in October 2022 when a neighbor banged on his Bronx firehouse’s door to alert him to a fireplace up the road — arriving to listen to a lady and baby in a fifth-floor condominium who have been trapped.

Vanderstar “ducked beneath the hearth in his full protecting gear and self-contained respiration equipment and shot down the hallway to the rear bed room and located an grownup lady and a baby,” a colleague, Capt. Stephen Elliott instructed The Submit on the time.

He carried the kid down the steps whereas two colleagues carried the girl.

“If [the mother and child] have been in that condominium for an additional minute or two, they more than likely had no probability of survival,” Elliot mentioned. “It’s an incredible rescue.”

Gaffney equally risked his life in February 2023 when he rushed right into a burning condominium constructing to avoid wasting an unconscious pregnant lady and baby.

“He first shielded the kid together with his personal physique to get him to security. Gaffney then ran by means of the hearth once more and rescued the girl. He carried out CPR on the girl whereas ready for paramedics. The girl and baby each survived,” the White Home mentioned in a press launch asserting the awards.

The night medal ceremony can even honor 5 Nashville law enforcement officials who responded to the Covenant Faculty mass capturing in 2023 and to Lincoln, Neb., police Sgt. Tu Tran saved a lady trapped inside a automotive from a frigid pond.

Biden can even award the Medal of Honor posthumously to 6 Military troopers: Personal Bruno R. Orig, Personal First Class Wataru Nakamura, Corporal Fred B. McGee, Personal First Class Charles R. Johnson, retired Normal Richard E. Cavazos, Captain Hugh R. Nelson, Jr.

Military Specialist Fourth Class Kenneth J. David can even obtain the excessive honor.