The police have a suspect in custody for the suspicious Coney Island fire that left two cops in critical condition. A 16-year-old boy was taken into custody last night as arson investigators continue to investigate the blaze.
It's believed a mattress which was left in the hallway was set on fire after 12 p.m. A resident said, "It was really smokey, and you couldn't breathe. And it was coming into the house."
Police Officers Rosa Rodriguez, 36, and Dennis Guerra, 38, were at 2007 Surf Avenue, responding to a report of a fire on the 13th floor. They took the elevator and when they got out on the 13th floor, Police Commissioner Bratton says they were "overcome by smoke in the hallway." The cops called for help, "Help! Help! We can’t breathe. Get us out of here! We don’t know where we are. We’re in an elevator. We don’t know what floor we’re on. We can’t breathe! We can’t see!"
Bratton said that the FDNY found the officers "unconscious and unresponsive" on the hallway floor before taking the cops back into the elevator to the main entrance, where they were treated by EMS.
Rodriguez regained consciousness and was stabilized at Lutheran Medical Center and then taken to Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, where she was intubated and placed into a hyperbaric chamber. Guerra went into cardiac arrested. Bratton said, "Officer Guerra was resuscitated in the field and then brought to Coney Island Hospital, where he was stabilized. He was then air-lifted to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, where he is currently being treated... They are both being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning and the effects of smoke inhalation."
The cops, who are both married and each have four kids, were patrolling the housing development when the fire broke out. A source told the Post, "You’re never supposed to use the elevator because you might get stuck."
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch thanked the firefighters: "They treated our brother and sister like it was their brother and sister. That means a lot to us. There’s no difference when one of our uniforms is laying on the floor."
