Operations & Training

NY Senator's 101-Year-Old Mom Saved from Brooklyn Fire

Dec. 17, 2020

FDNY firefighters and a Hatzolah Ambulance Services crew rescued the mother of New York state Sen. Simcha Felder and three other people from a fire at a home-operated synagogue in Brooklyn.

By Graham Rayman

Source New York Daily News

The 101-year-old mother of a New York state lawmaker was among four people rescued from a fire at a home-based Brooklyn synagogue Wednesday by FDNY and Hatzolah Ambulance Services.

First responders quickly rescued the 101-year-old mother of a state senator and three others after a fire erupted in a synagogue operating out of a Brooklyn home Wednesday morning.

The flames broke out just before 8 a.m. at the house on 18th Ave. in Borough Park at Congregation Beth Aaron, the synagogue formerly run by state Sen. Simcha Felder’s late father.

Felder’s mother was on the first floor, in a wheelchair, and a Hatzolah Ambulance Services crew got her out of the building before the firefighters arrived, FDNY Deputy Chief James Boylan told WABC-TV.

“(FDNY) Members removed three people from the second floor, a mother and two children,” he said. “Everybody is doing OK.”

Firefighters carried the women and children down a ladder to safety.

”The guys did a great job,” Boylan said. “They saved some lives, they saved some sacred documents, so that’s a win for the FDNY.”

Officials said one Torah was saved, but there were more in a second-floor safe that were unreachable at first.

It’s unclear if they were damaged or unharmed inside the safe.

Fire marshals were investigating the cause of the blaze.

With John Annese

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