NYPD lieutenant honored for saving family from Staten Island fire

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — An off-duty police officer who helped save neighbors from a burning home last month during a snowstorm was honored at Borough Hall on Wednesday.

Borough President Vito Fossella officially recognized the efforts of Lt. James Heinz, a 36-year-old NYPD lieutenant who helped to save a mother and two young children trapped during a fire in Prince’s Bay in February.

Fossella presented Heinz, a 13-year veteran of the NYPD, with an official citation that commends his “extraordinary courage and selfless service” during the fire.

“In a way, people sometimes don’t figure out what Staten Island is about, but that’s OK,” Fossella said while addressing those gathered at the ceremony.

“To me, one of the things it’s about is helping your neighbor when your neighbor’s in trouble. And there’s no greater way to help your neighbor than saving their lives,” the borough president continued.

During the ceremony, Heinz recounted his actions on the day of the fire, detailing how he was out shoveling snow when his girlfriend first pointed out smoke coming from a neighbor’s windows.

“I didn’t think twice about it,” he said, when asked how he felt when springing into action.

Friends and family members joined Heinz for the ceremony, including his brother Christopher Heinz, a firefighter with Engine 168 in the Rossville neighborhood.

Christopher Heinz told the borough president that his unit was among those which responded to the February fire.

After the award ceremony, James Heinz expressed gratitude for the nod of appreciation from Borough Hall and his family’s presence at the ceremony.

“It’s a great accomplishment. I’m glad that my family could be a part of it, I’m glad my brother could be here and represent the fire department,” James Heinz said. “It was greatly appreciated and it’s nice being honored and recognized for taking action.”

The day of the fire

On the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 25, James Heinz was spending a day off shoveling snow when he was alerted to the smoke coming from a neighbor’s house.

Within seconds, the NYPD lieutenant was sprinting toward the house fire on Rensselaer Avenue.

“I couldn’t see inside,” Heinz previously told the Advance/SILive.com while detailing the events of the day. “There was not much time to spare, I had to act quick.”

As he walked around the side of the house, he heard a woman screaming inside. But there was a fence in his way.

“It was a PVC fence, I just grabbed the top of it and luckily yanked it down,” said Heinz, who at that point was stripped down to a T-shirt and sweatpants in sub-freezing temperatures.

Once he broke through the fence to the home, he saw a window and a frantic woman on the other side of it. The two of them worked together to remove the window. The woman and two young girls, ages 5 and 11, escaped through the busted fence.

The woman’s 30-year-old brother was also inside, along with an older woman. “I kept asking the brother, ‘How many people are inside?’” said Heinz. “Once we got the count, we knew it was time to step away and let the Fire Department do its job.”

Video shows harrowing response

Video from the day of the fire shows Heinz’s girlfriend alerting him to the smoke as she calls for help. Plumes of smoke can be seen rising from the home, as Heinz drops his shovel and takes off running.

In a different clip — after FDNY crews arrived at the scene — Heinz is seen walking past NYPD officers in a T-shirt and sweatpants in sub-freezing temperatures.

“He got everyone out of the house?” one officer asked another. “That’s great.”

Moments later, an out-of-breath Heinz is seen walking police into his own home, where he and his girlfriend welcomed their neighbors — three adults and two children — giving them time to warm up and get their bearings.