FDNY hero Abraham Miller, on a roof six stories above a Manhattan street, heard the screams before spotting something through the flames and billowing smoke: A child’s tiny hand, extended from an apartment window.
As a colleague lowered Miller down by hand with a rope, with the screams of other residents echoing through the darkness, the five-year veteran tried to put the 5-year-old girl at ease.
“I told her, ‘We’re coming, we’re coming, relax,’” he recalled of the daring Sept. 29, 2020, rescue. “Once I had her in my arms, she was crying and I said, ‘Just put your arms around my neck.’ The ride down was the longest ever.’”
The FDNY firefighter will be honored Wednesday with the Peter J. Ganci Jr. Memorial Award, the department’s highest annual award for bravery, renamed last year for the late chief of department. Ganci became the FDNY’s high-ranking uniformed member to die in the line of duty on 9/11.