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Miranda Leitsinger / NBC News
Joe Adinolfi, an off-duty firefighter, rescued nine people from 5 feet floodwaters and a raging fire when Hurricane Sandy struck his tiny seaside community of Breezy Point, N.Y., on Monday night.
BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- A raging fire was creeping closer and closer to Joe Adinolfi’s home when he decided to get out.
He packed his phone and wallet into a life vest, since there was also about 5 feet of standing water outside his home due to Hurricane Sandy, and thought he would try to reach a refuge within his tiny seaside community of Breezy Point in New York City.
But then he heard a cry for help from the parking lot in front of his home.
“I heard people out there in the parking I couldn’t see calling for help, and when I got over there, closer, I saw it was these elderly women,” said Adinolfi, a father of three girls who was off-duty from his work as a firefighter that Monday night when the storm struck.
Adinolfi, 48, waded into the waist-high water around 10 p.m. where he found three women clutching onto the back of a SUV, one holding so tightly onto a kennel with several small dogs that her hands were bleeding. The women also had an African Grey Parrot.
“They were crying, ‘please help me,’” he recalled them saying. He replied, “’I’m coming ladies. We’re going to get to my house, don’t you worry.’”
Adinolfi took the cages and led the women back to his home. The dogs bit at his left hand – and he has the bite marks to prove it.
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“You had to see the dogs and I was carrying that thing, they were like half underwater swimming in this cage. But we got’em all out,” he quipped.
The rescue didn’t end there: One of the women told him about her autistic brother, who was clinging to a nearby fence with his Spanish-speaking aide standing in the water. Next to them, there was a mother with her two adult daughters and one of the girl’s boyfriends.
PhotoBlog: Panoramic view of Breezy Point destruction after Hurricane Sandy fire and flood
Adinolfi made trips back and forth for about an hour through the ocean water, which he recalled thinking felt warmer than he thought it would.
The group dried off at his house and hunkered down there for two hours. One of the women with her mother, Joanne Lepera, said the elderly women were somber, devastated that their homes had been lost to the fire.
As the fire raged closer to Adinolfi’s two-story home, the group left for another friend’s house. He eventually left them and went to another home, where he stayed the night.
David Friedman / NBC News
Superstorm Sandy made landfall Monday evening on a destructive and deadly path across the Northeast.
Adinolfi modestly recounted the tale on Thursday as he walked through his devastated community, saying, “that was it, that’s my story.” He also chided himself for staying back after his family left, noting it was “foolish.” He had done so to try and prevent flooding in his home, though his basement ultimately filled up with water.
As he passed his neighbors with a reporter, they called him a hero. He lightheartedly brushed that off, though Lepera said he deserved the moniker. She said that when Adinolfi came by waving a flashlight, he told them that he was a firefighter and that their house could be under threat from the blaze since the wind was shifting.
“He was walking through cold water to try to save other people, which is not easy especially with the high, high winds,” Lepera, a 28-year-old dental assistant, said by phone, adding that the family had been debating whether they should leave. “He was extremely calm. He didn’t seem like there was like any stress on him. He was just trying to help a neighbor out in need.”
PhotoBlog: Devastating fire follows flooding in Breezy Point, Queens
The storm delivered two punishing blows to this community founded more than a century ago by Irish immigrants. First it sent floodwaters roaring through its streets and into its homes, then sparked an inferno that claimed more than 100 houses -- including the Lepera home -- nestled side-by-side on tiny lanes of sand.
At the parking lot where Adinolfi made the rescues, one car bore the water marks of being almost completely submerged. There also remained the white SUV the elderly women clung to. But Adinolfi insisted he wasn’t a hero.
"That was nothing, really, it wasn’t. Just leading them over there,” he said. But he softly added, “I hate to think what would have happened to them.”
Comments? Questions? Email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com
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Leave a Comment:
I thank you for your service and wish you the best life has to offer. God Bless...
Technically, even though he was not on the clock, off-duty or not he was doing what he has trained hard to do in the face of adversity. He is a credit to his profession and an example of what all of us should do for our neighbors. Stay strong America, stand together and rebuild!!!
RFFN!!!
What a wonderful story!! It's always heart warming to hear stories like these when there are so many other stories that are so full of misery and dispair. Good for you, Joe! You ARE a hero!
I grew up cutting my teeth on hurricanes. This guy is a real hero-Mike Blooming crazy should take a lesson from him in doing the right things instead of running a marathon over people who have lost loved ones, home and everything. What's wrong with the so-called leaders we elect? They are the aristo-rats of our society. Until we get campaign reform only the vampires will reign.
For all of you who don't believe in a higher entity - this should convince you. Why else would he have remained where he did and decided to leave his home at this point. He is a hero - and always will be. What a selfless act he performed. I wish I could meet him and say thank you for restoring my faith in people. We are all so often in a hurry and "don't want to get involved". Thank God this man did just that. What an amazing person. We should all be humbled by his act.
I guess you could say he wasn't an "average Joe".... Good job
Mr. Adinolfi, your extending kindness to those people was wonderful. You are definitely a man of integrity. (I taught my parrot to sing "I left my heart in San Francisco..." Maybe the owner could have his parrot say, "Thank you!!!")
Hats off sir. Awesome job.
Sometimes for some reason, the right person is in the right place at the right time.
Ain't life weird.
Now that's a true hero!
Well done Joe. For every ugly story there are at least two good ones like this one to be told. I am a Texan but very proud of the New York "get er done" attitudes.
I don't know if you saved their lives, but I can promise that you changed their lives. Those nine people will remember your kindness for the rest of their lives, and they will remember you as a hero. God bless you! I'm so glad you were there for them and took care of them - it lifts us all up to hear a story like this.
Well done, Sir!!! You are a HERO.
I would like to put in my vote.. for JOE.. Man of the month.
Kudos to you, Joe! Job well done!
And at least he has the common sense to say, in retrospect, that he was foolish to have stayed behind. I hope people pay attention to that.
Funny that no one (or at least very few -- I'll admit I haven't read every comment) has commented on this. . . .
That's what the spirit of mankind is about. You rescue people and animals in need. No need to stop and evaluate...you go for it ! well done !
My friend, you are a hero no matter what. A hero is someone who puts themselves in harms way to protect another. You have done that multiple times over.
Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.
God bless you Joe and I pray he keeps you safe the rest of your life. Firefighters are always giving way more than they get or deserve.
God Bless you sir. You are an inspiration to us all.
Natonal Guardsmen were sent in the morning after as far as I know.
In hindsight.
Having troops on the ground from the begining to assist people who thought it was ok to not evacuate.
lone fireman in the story did good.
I hate to rain on everybody's parade.....so I won't! Great job Joe. May God bless you abundantly Sir!
It's heart warming to see there are still people who care about others. This man IS a hero.
This is my cousin and he is a true Hero. Even though he does not think he is, he is alright. He has been since the day he became a firefighter, especially when NY was forever changed by 9/11. You will always be my hero Joseph! I love you.
Nicole