Winter Storm Quinn nearly took the life of a Thiells volunteer firefighter.
While securing the scene of a car accident with downed power lines and a fallen tree, Fire Lt. Kenneth John Connolly heard a second tree snap and dove under a nearby guardrail.
"I didn't have time to look at the tree or see where it was coming from. I just dove under a guardrail. My helmet went flying, so I didn't know if I hit my head or not," Connolly said from a Nyack Hospital gurney. But "I felt the tree hit my leg."
The 26-year-old firefighter was pinned under the tree trunk.
"I kind of like self-extricated myself from the tree by taking my right foot from the tree trunk and pulling myself out," Connolly said. "I went on the radio saying, 'I just got hit by a tree' and I was screaming, and the two (Haverstraw police) officers heard me."