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From the Connnecticut Post:

Fiery crash victim rescued by NYC firefighter
By Richard Weizel
STAFF WRITER
Updated: 12/14/2009 12:20:44 AM EST

A veteran New York City firefighter on his way home from the Mohegan Sun casino is being credited with rescuing an Old Lyme woman from a fiery car wreck Saturday afternoon on Interstate 95, just as the 2003 Volkswagen Beetle became engulfed in flames.

Vincent Sottile, 38, of Lindenhurst,

N.Y., who works in Ladder 167 in the Flushing section of Queens, thought he had the day off Saturday and was making a leisurely ride back home from the Uncasville casino with his wife, Joanne.

But what happened next, about 4 p.m, turned out to be “the most dramatic rescue I have ever made” during a 20-year career as a volunteer and paid firefighter, Sottile said.

When he saw a car on fire on the northbound side of Interstate 95, he stopped his car on the southbound highway's left shoulder. Then, donning his own fire gear — which just happened to be in the car — jumped over an I-95 barrier just north of exit 41 in Orange to pull the woman, trapped, semi-conscious and surrounded by flames, out of her burning car.

Others who frantically tried to help the woman were forced back by the flames, but Sottile said he was able to reach into the burning vehicle and pull out 56-year-old Janice Valliancourt.

“She was on fire with smoke coming from her body and would have been dead in another minute,” Sottile said. “The state trooper on the scene was completely dazed from being involved in the multi-car accident and I was forced to go into his (cruiser's) trunk and take the flares to shut down the interstate. I couldn't believe what was happening.”

He credits the trapped woman's heavily leathered boots with saving her from far more serious injury. “The boots were up past her knees, and were crispy and badly charred. But they protected her from having much more serious burns.” Sottile said he would never have been able to rescue the woman if he didn't have his gear to protect him from the raging flames.

“It just makes the story that much more amazing because I just happened to have been on an assignment in another firehouse the day before we left, and I threw my gear in,” he said. “Ordinarily, I would not have had all of that with me.”

A nursing supervisor at Yale-New Haven Hospital said Valliancourt was listed in fair condition about 4 p.m. Sunday.

Several other people involved in the multi-car accident, that led to a massive traffic back-up on I-95, were treated and released at Yale-New Haven, and from several other area hospitals.

Initial media reports that the state trooper had pulled the woman from the car are unfounded, according to Sottile, his wife and a spokesman for the FDNY.

While Lt. J. Paul Vance, State Police spokesman, could not be reached for comment Sunday, he had indicated to media outlets Saturday that the trooper was the one who made his way to the burning car, cut the female driver's seatbelt and rescued her from the car.

“I was there the whole time and my husband is the only one who got that woman out of the car,” Joanne Sottile said.

State police have indicated a state trooper was investigating an accident near exit 41 when a car hit his cruiser, which then crashed into him. The car that hit the cruiser then caught on fire, which then spread to another car at the scene. The officer was out of his car investigating when the Volkswagen traveling in the left lane struck the rear of his cruiser and threw him into another stopped car, police said.

The State Police Accident Reconstruction Unit is assisting in the investigation.

Jim Long, director of public information for FDNY in Brooklyn, said the city is aware of Sottile's actions and plans to present him with some kind of citation.

“We spoke with firefighter Sottile and he gave us a full account of what occurred, but he's a little humble about it,” Long said. “He knew something had to be done at the scene and acted accordingly to assist someone in need, and we are very proud of his actions. He acted in the best traditions of the FDNY and fire service in general. It's another example of someone from the FDNY doing something heroic.”