A New York Uber driver has been called a hero after running into a burning building to help residents to safety.
Reports show Fritz Sam was taking a passenger to LaGuardia Airport at 8 a.m. when he spotted a multi-story brownstone in Brooklyn on fire on Aug. 17. No first responders were on the scene yet, so he sprung into action after asking his passenger, Jemimah Wei, for permission.
“Five minutes into the ride, we’re passing this block, and I noticed that there’s some activity going on in front of a brownstone,” Sam said. “I realized it was a fire.”
Wei followed Sam as he ran to the building alerting sleeping occupants about the fire that at the time was contained on the second floor of the four-story building.
“Flames were shooting out of the building. There were glass shards everywhere,” Wei said. “It looked really bad.”
The passenger said she was not concerned about missing her flight after seeing people’s lives in jeopardy.
“It wasn’t even a calculated decision. He just ran in without hesitation,” Wei said. “He ran straight into the fire. I thought it was so brave.”
According to CNN, neighbors weren’t sure if there were still people inside, so Sam ran into the brownstone. He rescued a man on the first floor and a woman on the second. The woman was at the top of the stairs with smoke behind her when Sam found her, he told The Washington Post. Sam tried to coax her out of the building, but she appeared stunned and refused to move.
“I think she was in shock, and she didn’t want to leave,” Sam said. “It took a little bit of negotiating.”
“I’m not leaving without you,” he recalled telling the woman. “If you’re not leaving, I’m not leaving.”
Firefighters and other first responders arrived on the scene six minutes after Sam approached the building. The Uber driver had cleared the entire building by then. It took 70 firefighters to put out the flames. No one was injured. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
In the end, Wei, a writer who was on her way to a writer’s conference, made her flight on time. She tweeted about Sam’s heroic efforts after, and it went viral.
“He has a really strong moral compass,” Wei said of Sam. “It was an act of pure good-heartedness. I really want good things to happen for him.”
Sam, a married father of two girls, ages 5 and 7, has been an Uber driver since 2015. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was one of many on social media applauding Sam’s heroic efforts, noting that Sam spoke to him about being grateful that someone moved his car while he responded to the fire.
“People are good indeed,” Khosrowshahi tweeted.
Sam told The Washington Post he believed it was his “responsibility” to help the people in the building.
“It’s not my family, but it’s someone else’s family,” he said. “If it was my family, and I wasn’t able to be there, I would hope that somebody else would go in and help them.”
