Rescue isn’t finished yet
SAVING LIVES runs in this firefighter’s family.
Smoke-eater Jim Lee rappelled from the roof of a burning Upper East Side apartment building and plucked 81-year-old James Duffy from a fifth-floor window on Oct. 27. The pair made it to safety just before flames ate through their burning lifeline.
Now the hero firefighter’s wife, Erin Lee, 38, is determined to help Duffy, who is still in a rehab facility recovering from severe burns, and the other victims who lost their homes at 324 E. 93rd St.
The blaze killed third-floor resident, Lemmy Thuku, 25.
Erin Lee, who works as an occupational therapist at a senior center, said the idea to help came after she went to meet Duffy at his Upper East Side rehab center — and learned he has nowhere to go when he’s released. “He is a very humble and sweet man,” Erin Lee said of Duffy.
“He lost his home of 50 years and every piece of memorabilia saved over 81 years.” Jim, 43, and Erin Lee brought their two kids to visit Duffy on Thanksgiving and told them of their plan.
“They’re a beautiful family, wonderful people,” Duffy, a retired disc jockey, told the Daily News.
“I’ve never met anybody who has done so much to help strangers.”
Erin Lee has already raised $3,000 for those who lived in the building’s eight apartments.
Initially she fund-raised through the FDNY’s Pipes & Drums band nonprofit website, but has since set up a GoFundMe page.
She’s also helping to collect donated goods like clothes and jackets to replace what residents lost in the fire.
She has reached out to the city’s Housing Preservation and Development agency to try and find the other displaced residents, none of whom can return to the charred shell of the building.
“I have a lady in Colorado who gives handmade quilts to fire victims — she’s got one for everyone ready to go,” said Lee.