"We got lucky. We were at the right place at the right time."
That's what one of the two men who helped save a Yorktown woman from her burning Wildwood Street home said.
That late Sunday morning, Robert Cole, who works in private sanitation in the Bronx, was headed out to breakfast at Mohegan Lake's IHOP with his wife Joann to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Their oldest daughter Alexa was with them.
That's when he saw smoke.
At first he thought it was a car fire. Something made him turn around as he was driving on Route 6. What he saw was someone's home, ablaze.
"I could see the whole back of the house [on fire]," he told Patch on Monday.
Cole, whose father was a New Rochelle firefighter, drove to the home, immediately got out of his car and ran toward the burning building.
The Eliseo family's home at 3784 Wildwood Street was on fire and as Cole ran up to the front porch, Marie – the oldest of three children – told him her mother was still inside the house. Cole said he had to keep Marie from going back inside the house.
Cole saw that Maria Eliseo, who had hip replacement surgery three weeks ago, was on the second floor of the home. He tried to go up a column onto the porch roof to get closer. He then grabbed a gutter to pull himself up higher, but it gave way as it pulled away from the home.
That's when the Eliseo family's neighbor Brian Avery showed up with an extension ladder he placed against the house.
Just moments before the Eliseo home became fully engulfed in flames, Cole and Avery pulled Maria Eliseo out of the bathroom window on the second floor where she was trapped.
Both men fought the heavy smoke as they got the woman out of the house. Avery headed down the ladder to guide her down, while Cole remained on the roof to get her on the ladder.
At that point, black smoke came out and covered him. His family feared the worst. Then, a gust of wind cleared the smoke so he could see where the ladder was and come down safely.
Once down, the two men, including another neighbor – Joshua Reed – carried the woman away from the house.
Some 60 to 90 seconds later, the whole house was engulfed in flames.
Avery said Cole deserves credits for what he did.
"The day would surely turned out differently if he was not there," Avery said.
Cole was treated at the Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt for smoke inhalation. Maria Eliseo was also treated for smoke inhalation, while three firefighters and two other people suffered minor injuries.
Cole said he later spent the evening coaching his daughter's team in two youth basketball games, which they won.
Avery's story of bravery is similar.
He said his daughter Olivia, 17, looked out their living room window that Sunday morning and began shouting "the Eliseos' house is on fire!" He immediately ran out the door towards their house.
Avery, 48, who has lived in Yorktown for 14 years, came across the oldest daughter who said her mother was sleeping upstairs.
When Avery opened the front door, was hit with a wall of smoke and quickly closed it. He tried to climb the porch roof to get to the upper level, but he could not get a grip on anything. At this point, he remembered having an extension ladder in his garage.
He ran back to his house yelling to his wife Diane to get her car out of the garage so he could access the ladder.
"I ran back to the Eliseo’s house dragging the ladder, and with the aid of others, positioned it against the house. I ran up the ladder to see Mrs. Eliseo partially out the bathroom window. At this time, I recall another man by my side."
Avery said he had never met Cole, also a Yorktown resident, until that moment.
"I thanked God for his presence, as there was no way I was getting Maria out of the window and down the ladder on my own," he said.
Cole said once he knew someone needed help, there was no time to think twice. Instinct took over. Avery also said this was his neighbor who needed help and he knew he had to do something.
Monday afternoon, Cole and Avery met with the family outside their home, which was now reduced to rubble. The Eliseo's oldest daughter Marie embraced both men and thanked them for saving her mother.
As neighbors drove by the home, many of them slowed down in disbelief at the site of what's left of the home. One woman gasped as she put her hand over her mouth, while other residents shook their heads.
Avery said the Eliseo family is doing OK and staying locally with relatives.
"The Eliseo’s are a strong, close knit family with hearts of gold," he said. "Friends and neighbors are doing all they can for them."
Giulio Eliseo is a butcher at the A&P in Scarsdale. The family's two younger children Bernadette “Bernie” and Giulio weren't home at the time of the fire. More than 150 firefighters from eight departments responded to the blaze on a windy and chilly day.
"Any one of them would give theirs shirts off their backs to help someone else in need," Avery said of the Eliseo family.
Avery, currently a Senior Master Sergeant in the New York Air National Guard, said he spent 11 years flying in and out of the Middle East, but he never felt he was in a situation where his actions truly directly affected another life.
For his actions in saving Maria Eliseo's life, many have called him a hero. Yet, he does not consider himself one.
"I was an ordinary citizen in the right place at the right time," he said.
___
For further reading:
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
