FDNY heroes awarded medals for daring acts — from rope rescues to thwarting bridge jumpers
Meet the bravest of The Bravest.
Fearless members of the FDNY were awarded medals Wednesday for life-saving acts of heroism — from a daring 20th-story rope rescue to a thwarted would-be bridge jumper.
Mayor Eric Adams and Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, presented dozens of firefighters, EMTs and paramedics with the honor at the department’s annual Medal Day ceremony at City Hall.
“Being a hero is being someone who is willing to run towards danger, not away from it,” Adams said at the packed event.
Kavanagh praised the honorees for their quick-thinking bravery and brains.
“It is a constant mental calculation involving split-second decisions. Skill and bravery is why you are the best,” she said.
Here are some of their stories:
Firefighter Artur Podgorski, Ladder 108
He took bravery to new heights.
On Nov. 5, 2022, Podgorski rushed to the scene of a high-rise fire in Midtown Manhattan — where a trapped woman was hanging out of a window on the 20th floor.
A team of firefighters carefully lowered Podgorski down by rope from the floor above, as smoke from a lithium battery-ignited blaze poured out of the building.
Dangling high above the city, Podgorski quickly entangled the woman’s arm, then grabbed her and pulled her to safety.
“You get paid to do this, but no amount of money could buy the feeling you get from saving someone’s life,” he told The Post Wednesday.
Cpt. Jonathan Shields, Ladder 42
Shields pulled a man from a burning building in the Bronx — then went back for two more victims.
On New Year’s Eve 2023, a blaze broke out on the sixth floor of a Mott Haven apartment complex, trapping residents inside.
Shields, a 34-year FDNY vet, donned a face respirator and fearlessly began searching a hallway — as thick black smoke rendered it nearly impossible to see.
“There was a 15-foot dead-end hallway and I said, you know what, this is going to get missed if I don’t search this because it was pitch black,” he told The Post Wednesday.
Using a wall as his guide, he found a man lying face-down unconscious, and pulled him to a stairwell, where he was treated by fellow firefighters.
The hero then returned to the hallway and bravely pulled two women to safety with the help of his team.
“The adrenaline gets up,” he said. “You’re hyper-sensitive to the whole thing, and then it’s one after another after another.”
Emmanuel Titus and Shawn Griffin, EMTs
A suicidal man was sitting on the edge of the Kosciuszko Bridge in Greenpoint with his legs dangling over the side, when the EMTs arrived at midnight on April 16, 2023.
“I don’t want to live anymore,” he told them from 90 feet above the ground.
In a cool-headed and compassionate move, Titus hatched a plan to keep the distraught guy engaged in conversation while Griffin radioed for backup.
The pair calmly asked the man questions about his life, then Griffin asked if he could come sit next to him, and the man agreed.
“We were just talking to him, letting him know that he may feel like he’s alone but two random strangers just came to help him and he has friends that called [911] for him,” Griffin said.
When he gazed down at the dark creek below, they encouraged him to look at their faces instead.
“You’ve just got to try to calm the person down. It’s a high-stress situation, but you have to go in there with a clear head. You can’t be frantic,” Titus said.
Eventually, they convinced the man to continue the conversation in a safer spot, on the other side of the bridge barrier.
“I gave him a big hug after that because it’s a nerve wracking thing seeing someone on the side of the bridge like that,” Titus said.
They then escorted him by ambulance to a hospital to get mental health help.
