a fire that drew the response of 50 firefighters.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe smelt it, and then as we made the turn around the block I saw it. So he actually came through the red light, put the car in, and he ran while we were on the phone with 911,” Jacquie said.<\/p>\n
Find out what’s happening in Long Beachfor free with the latest updates from Patch.<\/p>\n
The 28-year FDNY veteran was able to relay to a 911 dispatcher the address of the fire, the location of the blaze within the house, and that he had firefighting experience. From there, Kevin crossed the six-lane road to see where the blaze was, ultimately locating it in the rear of the house by its chimney. After finding that the two residents of the house wanted to get their cat out of the building, Kevin and another civilian responder attempted to connect a garden hose to start dousing the flames. At this point, however, the responders ran into an equipment issue. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe other guy was going to turn the water on, he\u2019s hooking [the hose] up, and I hear, \u2018ch-ch-ch,\u2019 and I go, \u2018It\u2019s frozen!\u2019 The thing was filled with water, and they left it in the garage. So I go, \u2018nah, this ain\u2019t going to work,” Kevin said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Jacquie crossed back over the six lanes of traffic on Lido Boulevard to get fire extinguishers from their home. \u201cThey\u2019re not light,\u201d she joked. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe hose was useless…With that, I ran back here and got \u2014 they have no fire extinguishers \u2014 I got my fire extinguishers, we have tons, I have fire extinguishers everywhere. So I grabbed two of the fire extinguishers and ran back across,\u201d Jacquie continued.<\/p>\n
By that time, Kevin had figured out a new way to stop the blaze, spotting a burning piece of ventilation duct hanging out from the side of the house. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to do anything until I knew I could do something with water or extinguishers. I noticed, when I went in the house, there was a steel shovel on the front stoop. So, I grabbed the shovel, and, by that time the exhaust unit was hanging out. It was a big [piece of] ductwork for the fireplace, it was hanging out by the ductwork. It had flex duct, so it had fallen out. It burned out of whatever was holding it,\u201d Kevin said. \u201cI had the extinguishers there, so I knew I was going to be able to do something as soon as it got out, so I took the shovel \u2014 it was sharp, one of those straight-edged metal ones \u2014 and what I did was, where the flex was, I just kept hitting it. I got through one, and I got through the other. The whole thing fell out on the ground.\u201d <\/p>\n
Once the burning piece of ductwork was on the ground, the former firefighter was able to spray the burnt area down with the fire extinguishers Jacquie had brought over. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe cool thing is it didn\u2019t get into the house; they didn\u2019t lose the house. That was my biggest worry, \u2018It\u2019s going to get into the house, into…the common space between the living room and the attic.\u2019 I went over there, I looked, it charred the wood good, it charred all around it, it got up into the siding and everything, but it never got into the house. It stayed right outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ring camera footage from the couple\u2019s house shows them arriving home at 2 p.m. Monday, getting out of the car while on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. In the background of the footage, the smoke emanating from the Biarritz Street home is visible. <\/p>\n
\n
(Credit: Kevin Cahlil Via Ring) Kevin Cahlil, seen crossing the street, approaches the site of the Biarritz Street fire. <\/p>\n
For Jacquie, the experience gave her a rare chance to see her husband doing the kind of work he had done for almost 30 years in Manhattan. <\/p>\n
\u201c30 years on the fire department but I never saw him in action. I saw pictures of him, but I never physically saw him in action,\u201d Jacquie said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t even think. And I\u2019m yelling at him, \u2018You have no apparatus on, get away from that fire, you\u2019re burnable!\u2019 And he just jumped into action like it was yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only other time Jacquie had seen her husband in action, the Lido beach resident said, was when he put out a kitchen fire in their home with an extinguisher. When asked if it ever crossed their minds to not cross the street, waiting instead for fire departments to arrive and handle the fire themselves, both Jacquie and Kevin had the same answer. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d the husband and wife duo said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need the recognition, I\u2019m just glad that the people were out, they\u2019re safe, the house is still there, and they\u2019ll be back in there, is everything will be fine\u2026It\u2019s one of those things where we were in the right place at the right time and I could help,” Kevin said. “I\u2019m not going to stand here and watch somebody\u2019s house burn down. The people were out, that was our first safety [goal]. I could go inside and look, it was perfectly clear in there. [I said], ‘Alright, let\u2019s go outside and see what we can do.'”<\/p>\n
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