Yorktown postman delivers life-saving aid at Jefferson Village fire

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y.—A Yorktown Heights postal worker is being hailed a hero for rescuing a man from a burning home last month.

Chris Perez, a Carmel resident, was delivering mail at the Jefferson Village complex on March 28 when he spotted flames and smoke. Perez realized a person was trapped. What happened next would test his courage and help save a life.

On Facebook, Yorktown Heights Volunteer Fire Department praised Perez. “Kudos to the USPS mail courier for making one impressive rescue prior to FD arrival,” adding that “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

After a feature on News 12, coverage by other local news outlets, and an outpouring of gratitude from residents on Facebook and around town, Perez began to realize the impact of his split-second decision. Town Supervisor Ed Lachterman told Yorktown News that Perez’s actions represent what Yorktown is all about.

“We’re a community that helps each other, that supports each other,” Lachterman said. “It makes me exceptionally proud to be the leader of this community right now.”

Town officials recognized Perez, along with three others—Ed Hammond, Rene Lopez, and Elyce Koenig—involved in the lifesaving efforts at the April 8 Town Board meeting.

As for 40-year-old father of four Perez, returning to the scene daily brings up "bittersweet" feelings as he reflects on the challenges facing the victims. Yorktown News caught up with him by phone while he was out delivering the mail.

When did you realize there was a fire on your delivery route?

I was in Long Hill, which is the street over from where Flintlock is, and I saw the smoke between the houses. At first, I thought it was maybe somebody burning leaves. As I started to get more curious, I started to see that the smoke turned black, and it was real thick black. And I was like, "Oh no, that's a fire!" I hopped back into my mail truck, shot back over to Flintlock, and when I got there, folks were running and panicking.

I got out, I'm like, "Is everybody okay? Is everybody okay?" One of the ladies there was like, "Christopher, somebody's still in the house!"

All of a sudden, I see a gentleman walk out to the back porch, and he's just walking around in circles on the porch. And we're like, "Hey, your house is on fire, you need to get out!"

Panic is starting to set in because the fire is getting thicker and thicker, the smoke is getting darker. People were yelling and screaming around and panicking. And I kept telling the gentleman, "Hey man, you really—you got to get out of the house!"

He just said, "I can't," and then he kept mentioning his cell phone and his keys. So, in my mind, I'm like, I'm going to have to go to the front of this guy's house to kick his front door and save this dude, because he's not doing anything to make a move to save his own life.

What did you do next?

I went to the front of the house, and it was completely engulfed in flames. I've never seen anything like this. You see [fire in] movies, but when you see it in person, it is a completely different ballgame.

It was so hot. The flames were so hot that I felt my beard starting to fringe up. It was so scary. My next thought was I can't take that door down, because God forbid I fall into that fire—it was that bad at the front door. I just started to evacuate the people around me because I saw people with their doors open. I'm just screaming, "You need to leave! You got to get out. It's all going to burn down."

I said, "Run!"

How did you get the man off his back porch?

I ran back to the back, and I told him to jump first.

But then I started thinking. I got the mail truck. It's pretty tall. It's not that tall, but it's better than hitting the floor. I pulled that to the back of his porch and climbed up the front of the hood of the mail truck, and I got up over the banister. I told him, "It's time to go."

He kept saying, "Oh, my phone and my keys." And I'm like, "Sir, forget your phone; forget your keys. It's either that or you're going to die."

I thought I was going to have to physically grab him and toss him over the banister to save his life and mine. At that point, it was getting so hot, and he had zero ambition of wanting to get off that balcony. But thank God, he did, and we got him over, and we got him on down.

Once we got him down to the bottom, I just looked him in the face [but] I didn't say anything to him. I would have come down a long time ago. He went around to the front of the house, and I guess he was trying to get back into the house.

I left. I was like, “Alright, I got to go finish delivering this mail.”

Looking back, what made you decide to go toward the fire?

It was just like a shell-shocking moment for me. I felt my body... I didn't have any type of hesitation. I just felt that fight-or-flight come over my body, and I chose to fight. I chose to go in there.

I don't think I could have lived with myself knowing that I just walked away, or, hey, I'm just going to wait for the fire department to come [with] the way that that fire was dramatically increasing over minutes.

How have people responded since then?

So many people have come up to me and thanked me.

I love this place with all my heart. I can't even begin to express the feelings that I have for these folks. "Chris, did you eat? You hungry?" And this is not just because of, you know, the situation—they've always been like this for me. Now it's just magnified times 10. It's a great feeling.

Would you do it again?

Everyone continues to ask me, "Knowing you have kids and a family, would you ever do it again?" I say, "Absolutely."

I do think about my children, and I think about my family, but I can't walk away from anyone, whatever they're going through.

Even though I didn't know this man, I wasn't going to stand by and just let him perish. I don't care who he is, whether we're best friends or not. I'm going to make the decision for myself that I know I can sleep every night knowing that I did the right thing.

What's it like going back in the aftermath of the fire?

It’s bittersweet. I think about a lot of the folks there who lost their homes. And even though I’m being commended by so many different folks, I've never [experienced] anything like this. I can't fully say, yeah, man, I'm a hero.

I can't stop thinking about it. I'm out here delivering mail now as we speak, and I have to go and see it every day. It kind of makes me sick to my stomach to know that there are four families out there that now have to figure out [where to live]. I can't even imagine where to begin something like that.

Monday was mortifying and shocking—to see the aftermath of everything. I don't look at it as a good thing.

It does bother me walking past it every day, now it does. I do have that gut-wrenching feeling, even though you know everyone's all smiles and "hero this" and "hero that"... like that's all great. But I'm still thinking about these families. I don't know how I would come back from that.

Tell me about the people in Jefferson Village.

Yorktown is one of those places where magic happens, and magic really is in this place. Honestly, Jefferson Valley and the Jefferson condos over here—these folks are awesome.

Amazing people, amazing humans with great souls and character. From stories of, you know, a 55-year-old to stories with a 102-year-old, everybody over here genuinely cares about each other, and everybody over here really pushes for the next person. They're very much a community, a caring community. I think these folks are going to be OK. I think they're really going to pull together for these families. That’s the type of people they are over here.