{"id":240899,"date":"2026-05-22T19:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/240899\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T19:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:57:14","slug":"firefighter-reunites-with-new-york-city-school-principal-who-he-saved-during-recent-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/240899\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefighter reunites with New York City school principal who he saved during recent flood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Firefighter Travis Langan was reunited with a woman he rescued during Wednesday night\u2019s severe flooding on Wednesday night.\n<\/p>\n

Langan, a fireman for Ladder Company 123, was driving home from work on the Jackie Robinson Parkway when he observed P.S 81 Principal Carmen Pinto taking on nearly a submerged amount of water that was reaching the roof of her car.<\/p>\n

Langan was able to break the Tesla\u2019s skylight with his bare hands and a Yeti cup while on his way home from work.\n<\/p>\n

\"PS<\/a>PS 81 Principal Carmen Pinto recalls being trapped in a flooded car with seconds to spare and Firefigher Travis Langan coming to her rescue with seconds to spare.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell \"PS<\/a>PS 81 Principal Carmen Pinto recalls being trapped in a flooded car with seconds to spare and Firefigher Travis Langan coming to her rescue with seconds to spare.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Firefighter Langan said, \u201cI saw her face first up against the sunroof, and I just started punching, punching my way through,\u201d said Langan. \u201cI started working on the glass, and I\u2019m able to get ahead through, and I\u2019m very grateful that she came out alive. \u201d<\/p>\n

Pinto said, \u201cI was like, Oh, my God, he\u2019s gonna hurt his hand. \u2029He\u2019s gonna hurt himself. But I was also like, Oh, my God, I\u2019m running out of space to breathe.\u201d In hindsight, she wishes she had something better to break the window with.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani thanked Langan, who has served six years with the Fire Department, noting that even while off-duty, Langan made a life-saving decision.\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>A still image showing the daring rescue.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell \"Mayor<\/a>Mayor Mamdani thanked FDNY Firefighter Travis Langan (right) who saved prinicipal Carmen Pinto from a flooded car.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani thanked Langan for his service and said, \u201cTravis was off duty, but I know that I am here at a headquarters of so many New Yorkers, who in that term does not mean much. \u2029A room full of people whose commitment to this city is not measured by hours in a day, but, frankly, by a lifetime of service. Travis, you punched the sunroof with his bare fist, made a hole, and pulled Carmen from the flooding car.\u2029Carmen is with us today, safe and dry, in her favorite Jaylen Brunson T-shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n

FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said, \u201cPinto, who survived the incident, felt that the injured receive care, and our city is made sacred, each and every day. And thanks to that service, a school still has its principal. Three children still have their mother, four grandchildren still have their grandmother, a community still has its life, and the New York Knicks still has one of their biggest fans. It is also important to remember to have something to break glass or cut away seatbelts with in case of an emergency. We got very lucky with this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PS<\/a>PS 81 Principal Carmen Pinto recalls being trapped in a flooded car with seconds to spare and Firefigher Travis Langan coming to her rescue with seconds to spare.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell \"FDNY<\/a>FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore praised Firefighter Travis Langan (right) who saved prinicipal Carmen Pinto from a flooded car.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Firefighter Travis Langan was reunited with a woman he rescued during Wednesday night\u2019s severe flooding on Wednesday night.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[94147,194,195,9,11,10,94148],"class_list":["post-240899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-carmen-pinto","tag-fdny","tag-firefighters","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-travis-langan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}