new York
Taxi driver stops to save people from burning house – and gets the passenger to their destination in time
The taxi driver doesn’t want to make a fuss about his assignment (symbol image)
© SVPhilon / Getty Images
While driving, a taxi driver noticed a burning house on the side of the road. Quick-witted, he helped two people to get to safety – and then drove his passenger to the airport in time.
Fritz Sam was transporting a woman from Brooklyn, New York, to LaGuardia Airport when he noticed unusual scenes on the side of the road. The taxi driver saw people in pajamas standing there at eight in the morning, gesturing wildly and pointing to a building. He quickly realized that the house was on fire.
Sam reacted with presence of mind. The Uber driver agreed with his passenger that he would stop. Then he asked what had happened – and learned that there were still people in the burning building. The 54-year-old did not hesitate: he ran into the house to help those trapped inside to get to safety.
Taxi driver storms into burning building
Sam was inside the building for six minutes, helping two people escape the flames. He told a woman who was afraid to leave the house: “I won’t go until you go too.” A switch was simply flipped in his brain at that moment, he later explained to the CNBC broadcaster: “I have tunnel vision in situations like this. I didn’t want to hurt myself, but when people need help, I just want to do the right thing.”
He succeeded that morning without question. A resident of the home said the fire was probably caused by an air conditioner. After acting as a rescuer in the fire, Sam went back to his duty as a taxi driver – even getting his passenger to the airport on time.
Making a big difference with small things
Jemimah Wei, the woman in the passenger seat, then tweeted enthusiastically about her cab driver’s courage and praised his “strong moral compass”. Fritz Sam, however, does not want to make a fuss about his assignment. “There’s nothing special about me,” he told CNBC. “I think there’s something like that in everyone.” In the service sector, it’s his job to take care of his passengers and people in general: “It’s just in my nature that I want to do small things that make a big difference.”
Sources: CNBC / Jemimah Wei on Twitter