by ROBERT F. MOORE
A pair of off-duty firefighters met for the first time yesterday when they raced into a burning Queens house and rescued a 10-year-old boy.
"When people are in need, we do what we have to do," said Firefighter Thomas Morgan of Ladder 18 in lower Manhattan, who was visiting his mother at New York Hospital-Queens when he looked out the window and spotted the blaze. "That's why I took this job."
Morgan, 38, raced from the fifth floor of the hospital and ran two or three blocks to the house at 137-03 Booth Memorial Ave. in Flushing about 3:20 p.m.
Neighbors had stretched a ladder to the second-floor window and off-duty Firefighter Steve Devaney, assigned to Engine 46 in Bronx, stopped as he happened to be driving by. He was already inside searching for victims.
Morgan called out for Devaney: "Bro! Bro!"
They met, made sure each was safe, and continued looking for residents.
Devaney, 34, said he couldn't see anything through the smoke, but he found the boy nonetheless. "I kinda bumped into him, actually," he said.
Both firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation. At least four residents were also treated for smoke inhalation and one person suffered a leg injury.
"It could have been a lot worse," Morgan said.
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