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Article from 1986 NY Times ..QUOTE.. Battalion Chief Robert A. Stehl of the 41st Battalion, at 2900 Snyder Avenue in Brooklyn, and Edward T. McCloskey, his aide, were on the way yesterday morning to supervise the repair work on a ruptured fuel pipe. While driving there, they were notified of a fire at 185 East 31st Street in Flatbush.
Flames were coming from a first-floor window. A woman was screaming for help. The two men rushed in. Firefighter McCloskey grabbed a small two-and-a-half-gallon extinguisher to keep the fire from spreading upstairs.
Chief Stehl found Mary Williams, 55 years old, semiconscious and badly burned. He broke a window to give them both air. Within minutes, Engine Company 240 arrived and put out the blaze, according to the fire department.
Ms. Williams was taken to Kings County Hospital, where she was in critical but stable condition.
Both Chief Stehl and Firefighter McCloskey were unharmed. But for the latter, there was a certain poignance about the experience. Thirty years ago, he courted his wife, Maureen, who lived upstairs in the same building.
A version of this article appears in print on July 18, 1986, Section B, Page 4 of the National edition with the headline: NEW YORK DAY BY DAY; Scene of Heroism, Scene of Romance. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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