by ARI PAUL
The joint Police and Fire Department Urban Search and Rescue team sent to Haiti after the devastating earthquake this month was about to complete a day's worth of looking for survivors when FDNY Battalion Chief Joseph Downey received a call from another volunteer to respond to a dispute between two people near a pile of rubble where two children were trapped.
"He actually said, 'if you're too busy tonight, would you please come back in the morning,' '' he said, prompting chuckles from the 79 other members of the squad that went to Haiti, at a Jan. 26 ceremony at City Hall. "Without hesitation, we said, 'No, we'll be right over there.' ''
Trapped Beneath Four Floors
When they got to the scene, they saw a father digging into the ruins with a crowbar, which he had been doing for the previous eight days. He was able to create a hole big enough to pass water to his two children. Using a search camera, the task force was about to see how deep they were in, and began pulling what was four floors of structure that was on top of them, though the children had enough room and space to breathe. Four hours later the team had made a hole big enough for them to pass through when they hit another obstacle: the boy's anxiety.
"Because of the language barrier, he was afraid of us. He wasn't coming out," Chief Downey said. "We asked his mom to come down to the hole. She called him out in French, and it looked like he was playing hide and seek. He popped out of the hole. We picked him up."
The incident resulted in a widely circulated photo of the boy putting his arms up in the air in victory.
"It wasn't staged," Chief Downey said, noting that the boy's sister was pulled out soon after.
Mayor Bloomberg, joined by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano, noted that the team saved six people in the eight-day period it spent in Haiti. Notwithstanding that the final death toll will exceed more than 100,000 people, Mr. Bloomberg noted that these rescues were no small feats. City Councilman Jumaane Williams recalled the Jewish adage that saving one life is akin to saving the world.
'They Saved Six Worlds'
"The task force saved six worlds," he said. "I think that's a fantastic thing."
Chief Downey, whose father, Deputy Chief Raymond Downey, founded the FDNY search unit prior to his death on 9/11, said that the team was wellreceived when it arrived in Haiti.
"All we got was love from them," he said. "They wanted our help, and we gave them our help."
Police Deputy Inspector Robert Lukach, who led the task force with Chief Downey, noted that when people saw that the team was from New York, survivors were eager to tell them that they had family in Brooklyn; the city is home to more than 25,000 Haitians.
Mr. Bloomberg presented each responder with a certificate, and gave certificates to the four rescue dogs that went on the mission. But they also received edible keys to the city with their names on them.
The Mayor couldn't recall whether they were made from chicken or fish, but said, "I think it's fair to say they came from the heart."
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