Hero: A little girl & God helped me
Published: October 10, 2004
The retired firefighter who fearlessly raced into a burning house and saved a 2-year-old boy on Staten Island yesterday credited God and a 12-year-old girl as the real heroes.
John Rubino Jr., 41, was watching his son play baseball at the Great Kills Little League field at 8:45 p.m. when smoke began to pour from the windows of an adjacent two-story home.
Rubino instantly changed from passive spectator to fearless hero, jumping a tall fence and dialing 911 on his cell phone as he raced toward the burning home.
As he looked in vain for a garden hose, he heard a little girl screaming, “My brother is in there!”
The girl was Raisa Dyabkina, whose mother, Alla, a recent Russian immigrant, had been burned over 40% of her body, and whose 2-year-old brother, Dennis, was still in the fire-filled house. The two children had been having a pretend birthday party with a real lighted candle and accidentally started the blaze, fire officials said.
“I calmed her and asked her to point to his bedroom window,” Rubino said yesterday morning. “It was a rear window on the second floor. Kids usually go to where they feel safe.
“God pointed me in the right direction,” he said. And later he told Raisa she was a hero, too.
“I told her without her I wouldn’t have known [where to look],” he said.
Rubino, who retired from Engine 164 on Staten Island in May 2003 after a 20-year career with the Bravest, ignored the black smoke gushing from the windows and doors and raced up an outside stairway to the second floor, where he forced a door open and found himself in a smoky inferno.
Wearing only street clothes that offered him no protection from the flames, he dropped to his knees and began to crawl inside.
“I got my nose down to the floor,” he said. “I had about 3 inches [of breathable air]. Then the smoke banked down. I began to crawl towards the bedroom. I was going through the kitchen, feeling my way. I made sweeps with my hands.
“The heat was increasing. I felt as though my hair was going to burn. I could feel the heat on the tips of my ears. I was following instinct. Six feet into the kitchen, I brushed a bundle of clothes - no, it was a doll.
“No, that’s what kids feel like,” he realized. “I was able to grab his leg. He had tried to run to his bedroom for safety and just didn’t make it. He had taken a lot of smoke. I pulled him closer to me. I cradled his head. I kept him low. It’s cooler at floor level.
“I got him outside and took him to the lawn in front of his house to try to clear his airway,” Rubino said. “I did a head tilt. He coughed. It was a tremendous sound. He was still unconscious and fighting for breath.”
Borrowing an air mask from one of the firefighters who had arrived, Rubino fed the child clean air as he carried him to the safety of an ambulance that had just arrived.
“I’ve been praying all night that he makes it,” he said.
“That little girl [the sister] who had pleaded for her brother, I told her that because of her and her pointing out the window of his bedroom, she was a hero. She had told me exactly where he was. She had saved his life.”
The alarm was called in at 8:45 p.m. and the fire was under control at 9:22 p.m. Nearly 100 New York City firefighters fought the blaze along with members of Staten Island Volunteer Fire Engine Co. 1.
Dennis and his mom were listed in critical condition yesterday at Staten Island University Hospital.
Dennis’ grandmother Maria had a message for Rubino: “Of course we’re very grateful. When one person saves another it’s great. Thank you.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: