Fire hero: Rabbi Yitzy Bald saves two from flames

by Elana Dure

Issue of September 3, 2010/ 24 Elul 5770

On his way to shul in Bayswater last Shabbos afternoon, Aug 29, Rabbi Yitzy Bald was focused on making the 1:37 p.m. minyan for Mincha. Suddenly, he was shocked to see a chimney smoking in the heat of summer. He stared for 30 seconds, then approached the smoking house on the corner of Bays Park Place and Coldspring Road.

As Rabbi Bald neared the house, he realized the smoke was not only coming from the chimney but from other places as well. Once in front of the house, he saw and heard a woman and her 12-year-old daughter shouting for help from a second story window.

"Save us!" the woman yelled. They were locked in the room without a phone and had no way out.

"When you see someone in panic, and they were in panic, it is frightening," said Rabbi Bald.

Not knowing what to do without a cell phone, he shouted for help but no one responded. He offered to catch the woman and her daughter as they jumped out the window, but the victims were reluctant to do so. Out of ideas and desperate for help, Rabbi Bald began banging on the doors of neighboring homes. One neighbor gave him a ladder but it was too short to reach the second story window. A second neighbor brought a double extension ladder that was tall enough, and mother and daughter both climbed down as several men held the ladder in place.

911 was called and a half-dozen fire trucks, a police car, and an FDNY ambulance arrived at the scene about five minutes after the rescue. 20-30 firemen worked to put out the fire as a neighbor led the woman and her daughter to a bench and gave them each a glass of water. Rabbi Bald asked the woman if she called her relatives, to which she replied that she had. Her mother and father, the owners of the home, arrived about 45 minutes after the fire was out.

The fire started in the basement near the boiler room, according to the fire marshal. Fire damage was confined to the basement but there was water damage to the home as well.

An interesting side note concerns the owner of the home, Robert Avery, who several years ago spent a few hours fixing Bayswater's Satmar eruv when it fell down on a Shabbos. Rabbi Bald and others believe that his reward for helping the Jewish community that day was that a member of the Jewish community was able to save his daughter and granddaughter from the fire.

"I happened to be in the right place at the right time," said Rabbi Bald. "Hashem was on my side."

Rabbi Bald is a musician, composer, and a sixth grade rebbe at the Yeshiva of South Shore. He is married with three children and is currently developing a boys' choir.

"He was such a good teacher [and] he was fun," said Natan Davidowitz, his former student.

After Rabbi Bald gave a report to a fire fighter, received endless expressions of gratitude, and determined that everyone was safe, he continued on to shul and focused on making the 7:00 pm minyan for Mincha.