A Good Samaritan rescued a 4-year-old boy from a raging apartment fire in New York City Wednesday, pulling the lifeless child from the smoke and flames and giving him CPR until he was breathing again.
Horia Cretan was in his store in the Bronx when he heard "desperate screams" from a little boy next door, he told "FOX & Friends" Thursday.
An emotional Cretan said he rushed outside, saw "waves of smoke" billowing from a fourth-floor window and used a ladder to get to the fire escape.
"He was trying to breathe out through the window," he told FOX. "He was already foaming at the mouth. He looked at me. I said, 'Whatever you do, just breathe. Don't move.'"
Click here for dramatic video of the fire rescue.
A firefighter handed him the limp, unconscious 4-year-old. Using a curtain as a shield from falling debris, Cretan carried the boy to safety.
"When I took him, he wasn’t breathing," Cretan said. "His head fell back and I got scared. ... Then he opened his eyes and it was beautiful."
Cretan says he resuscitated the child by giving him CPR, which he learned by watching TV.
"I believe I did [save him]," Cretan told FOX. "He wasn’t responding at all."
The child is expected to survive.
Meanwhile, Cretan had another moment in the spotlight Thursday when he proposed to his girlfriend on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Click here for more from MYFOXNY.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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