FDNY Hero Lt. Robert T. Whelan

Published: November 25, 2014 FDNY Lieutenant Saves Child in Brooklyn Fire Lt. Robert T. Whelan. FDNY Lt. Robert Whelan saved a child from a fire in Brooklyn on Nov. 25. Firefighters were called to the scene of the fire on Thomas Boyland Street at approximately 2:40 p.m. Engine 283 arrived first and firefighters began to stretch a hoseline,  quickly making their way inside the two-story house . As Engine 257 approached the scene, they could smell the smoke more than a block away. When they arrived, numerous people on the street said that there was still a child in the house. Remembering their training, the firefighters began to make their way towards the fire in the apartment on the second floor. The fire was on the landing of the second floor, in the front rooms and in the kitchen in the middle of the apartment. Engine 283 had extended the hoseline to the second floor. The two Engine companies were quickly joined by Ladder 174, which began to systematically search the middle of the apartment where they all believed the child was located. Lt. Robert Whelan proceeded away from the main body of the fire in the front of the apartment and made his way through heavy smoke conditions and high heat towards the rear rooms.  Feeling the walls, he crawled to a small room in the back, past a bed to find a child lying face down on the floor. Lt. Whelan picked him up and transmitted the 10-45 (a signal that there is a victim in the fire), twice, to confirm that he had found him. “His face was next to my face, and I could hear him give a little cough - through my mask," Lt. Whelan said about finding the boy. Running out of the small room, he quickly handed the boy to a firefighter at the top of the stairs and then followed them outside to where EMTs continued with the chain of care, transporting the boy to the hospital. Lt. Whelan then returned to the second floor apartment to continue with the Engine’s primary job of water delivery to put out the fire. “The training just takes over and you do your job, you do what you’re supposed to do," Lt. Whelan said. “And hopefully - it’s in time.”