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by YOAV GONEN
A firefighter with Staten Island ties rescued an 83-year-old Brooklyn woman who was unconscious in bed while a fire raged one floor above them early yesterday.
Joseph Wakie of Brooklyn's Ladder Co. 132 was wearing a WAKIEmask while searching a basement blackened by smoke when he came upon Viola Waldron of 579 Classon Ave. in Kensington, and he pulled her out.
Mrs. Waldron was removed to Kings County Hospital in stable condition, having suffered burns and smoke inhalation.
Wakie, who now lives in Queens, is the son of the late John M. Wakie, a former battalion chief and 39-year FDNY veteran who lived on Staten Island.
The rescuer seemed humble and uncomfortable with the term "hero" when he talked to the Advance by phone last night.
'PART OF A TEAM'
"I just felt like part of a team. I was lucky and she was lucky too," said Wakie, a graduate of Staten Island Technical High School. "I feel like my father's proud now."
As was his mother, Agnes, who still lives in Rossville, and who called herself a "proud mom."
"The only thing that was on Joe's mind was to be good enough," said Mrs. Wakie. "He always wants to help people."
The fire erupted at about 1:30 a.m. in the first floor kitchen of a four-story building, according to an FDNY spokesman. It took 12 units and a total of 60 firefighters about half an hour to get the blaze under control.
Wakie was part of a three-man "inside team" that descended into the smoke-filled basement after Mrs. Waldron's son alerted firefighters that she was trapped inside.
THICK, BLACK SMOKE
"You only saw 6 inches away from your face," said Wakie, of the black smoke that hung in the air.
When he found Mrs. Waldron, he asked firefighter Zackary Fletcher, also of Ladder Co. 132, to assist him, and the pair carried the unconscious woman out to safety.
Two others were treated for minor injuries, including Fletcher.
Wakie, a member of Engine Co. 280 in Brooklyn for the majority of his five year FDNY career, was featured on page 39 of "Faces of Ground Zero: Portraits of the Heroes of September 11, 2001" by Life Magazine.
He married Lori Bridda two years ago, and the couple had their first child, Ashley Dee, on Jan. 3.
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