Officer Honored For Saving Wheelchair-Bound Man During Fire

NORTH BABYLON, NY - A Suffolk Police officer was honored on Thursday for his role in saving a wheelchair-bound man from a house fire in North Babylon earlier this week. On Wednesday, a blaze broke out at the Woods Road home, across from the Woods Road Elementary School, at 3:10 p.m.

First Precinct Police Officer Francis McKay arrived to the scene and was flagged down by Suffolk County crossing guard Sharon Doogan, who told him there was a man in a wheelchair on the second floor of the home, where the smoke and flames were coming from.

McKay put his life on the line to run up the stairs inside the home filled with smoke to save the 71-year-old Michael Goldstein. He then put Goldstein in a bear hug and escorted him downstairs and into a wheelchair.

Thankfully, no injuries were reported and firefighters were able to get the fire under control within 30 minutes.

For his heroic actions, McKay was honored by Babylon Town Councilman Terence McSweeney with the Town of Babylon Heroism Award.

"I just really wanted to make sure that everyone was going to be safe and that I was able to extract everyone from the house as safely as possible," McKay said.

In addition, two other officers were honored for saving an 85-year-old man from a burning car following a crash in South Huntington last week.