Firefighter James Lee Jr. of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) has been named the 2017 Ray Downey Courage and Valor Award recipient. The award will be presented on Wednesday during the Opening Ceremony of FDIC International 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Firefighter (FF) James Lee rescued an 81-year-old man from the top-floor rear window of a five-story Old Law tenement that had two railroad flats per floor. The building had no rear fire escape. The wooden stairway to the second floor was damaged by fire. On the second floor, the entire railroad flat where the victim, Mr. Duffy, lived was fully involved, and fire was burning in the public hallway and stairway up to the floors above.
Lee was lowered over the rear edge of the building on a live-saving rope to make the rescue.