He came to work a painter and left a hero.
Shortly after seeing flames shooting out of a second-floor window of the house he was preparing to paint, Annadale resident Thomas Izzo kicked in a back door, ran inside to find a helpless Yorkshire terrier named Cosmo and carried the beleaguered pooch to safety.
Nobody was home when the fire broke out in one of the house's three bedrooms at 409 Wilson Ave., Eltingville, at 10:14 a.m. Firefighters are not sure what started the blaze but do not believe the fire is suspicious, said Division 8 Deputy Chief William Tanzosh.
"He's my hero, he got my Cosmo out," the dog's grateful owner was overheard saying. Cosmo weighs about seven pounds.
A visibly shaken Izzo paced back and forth outside the house after firefighters extinguished the fire.
"I was doing what anybody else would do," Izzo, 42, a slender, self-employed painter, told the Advance. "I love dogs. I felt I had an obligation to get that dog. As long as the dog is all right . . . that's all that matters."
About 60 firefighters responded to the one-alarm fire, which was extinguished by 10:39 a.m.
The second floor was heavily damaged by fire and the house's siding was charred. The first floor suffered significant water damage.
Izzo first climbed a ladder to see if he could get in a window, before kicking in the door.
"It's a nightmare," he said while sitting on a neighbor's stoop. "I hope I'm dreaming, I wish I was dreaming. I want to wake up. One minute you have a beautiful home and the next minute, it's gone."
Becky Moore of Bulls Head was driving on Richmond Avenue after visiting her mother-in-law in Eltingville yesterday when she noticed an "overwhelming" plume of flame flashing skyward.
"I just turned onto the block and called 911," she said as she stared at the blackened, two-story house. "Unbelievable. She's lucky she wasn't home."
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