A 90-year-old woman was pulled from a smoldering house fire in Hicksville Monday morning.
Two firefighters and a neighbor are being credited with saving the life of the woman whose house went up in flames around 5:30 a.m.
Fire officials managed to get into the home, where they found the woman lying on the floor unconscious.
The woman's next-door neighbor T.J. was the first to discover the fire and alerted a nearby police officer.
"I was parking my car, and I saw that there was a wire down in front of the house, and as I was getting out of the car, I saw smoke coming from the house," says T.J. "I ran over there to try to get the lady out of the house ... and had the officer in front of the house call the fire department."
Fire Lt. Andrew Niemczyk and Capt. Chris Moskos were already on their way to the scene when they learned their call became more urgent.
"When we got in there, we opened the door initially and there was a hard push of smoke out the door and obviously those kinds of conditions isn't good for people who don't have an air supply like we have," says Moskos.
Niemczyk says after the woman was removed from the home, it was found she was breathing. She was rushed to Nassau University Medical Center.
Fire department spokesperson Owen Magee says timing was on everyone's side.
"It was close. The fire wasn't immediately around her and I guess the smoke got to her. Fire doubles in its intensity every minute ... minutes count," says Magee.
Fire officials say they believe the fire started from an electrical surge from a downed wire at a nearby telephone pole.
Moskos says this was his first save in his 12-year career as a firefighter.
"I don't want to say it hits you that emotionally, but it's a sigh of relief for yourself knowing that your training is paying off," he says.