MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A Miami Beach firefighter went the extra mile when he came to the rescue of an elderly woman in a wheelchair, Thursday.
Miami Beach Fire Lt. Oliver Hanna said he and other firefighters were on their way back to the station when they got a call of an elderly woman in need of help. “When we pulled up, we asked the lady if she needed assistance, EMT or fire related,” he said. “She said no. She just needed help getting back to her home.”
The woman said she was on her way home from a clinic and was dropped off at the wrong bus stop, near 71st Street and Trouville Esplanade. She was two blocks south of her home, a five-minute walk for most, but for her, a much harder trip.
“We asked her if we could put her on our truck, take her out of the wheelchair, bring the wheelchair with us and take her to her house via rescue,” said Hanna.
But the woman declined the lift. “She said no. She didn’t want to be lifted out of her wheelchair, so instead we decided to push her,” said Hanna.
It was at that moment when Hanna started wheeling the woman across the street and toward her home — just in time to beat the rain. “Weather today, local monsoon for the beach. Around that time, The heavy downpours, visibility very, very low,” said Hanna. “Next incoming storm was there, so we tried to get her out of the water, out of the rain before we got another downpour.”
Hanna said the woman was grateful to finally be on her way home. “She was very, very glad to see us,” he said. “In a nutshell, she stated that she asked numerous people how to get to her particular address two blocks away and nobody could help her, so she was like, ‘Thank you for being here, thank God for you guys, you guys are blessed.'”
Hanna said, with the lower visibility caused by the rain, drivers would have had a tough time seeing her, and that could have put her in even more danger.
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