The fire on Willoughby Ave., Brooklyn. Image courtesy of the Daily News.

Nearly three years after two New York City firefighters jumped from a burning building and plunged to their deaths, a 24-year FDNY veteran yesterday became the first to use a widely hailed safety device to escape from a Brooklyn house fire that almost engulfed him.

Raymond Pollard, 50, of Brooklyn, reppelled away from searing flames that had trapped him near a fourth-floor window of an apartment building on Willoughby Avenue, fire officials said.

The fire was reported at 3:41 a.m. Pollard drove the second unit to arrive at the scene, Ladder Company 102 from Bedford Avenue.

Within 10 minutes, officials said, Pollard broke three fourth-floor windows facing the street and entered the building to look for occupants. When he moved to the hallway, fire surged up the stairway and over his head, blocking his exit. He moved to the next room, where the fire forced him to retreat to the window.

“Just as the fire was blowing over his head, he took the hook out and jammed it into the windowsill,” said Stephen Raynis, safety command battalion chief.

The emergency device, called the Exo System, was developed by FDNY members in the wake of the deaths of Lt. Curtis Meyran and firefighter John Bellew, who jumped from a window of a burning Bronx building in January 2005, when they could not find the fire escape. Four other firefighters who also leapt from that building were critically injured.

The manufacturer, Petzl, describes the device as a system that allows trained personnel to exit a burning building very rapidly using a heat resistant escape line, a specially designed anchor, a connector and a harness.

Categories: Cool Tools, Fighting Fire, On the Fire Side
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