Off-duty firefighter helps save woman in Yonkers who overdosed

Yonkers Fire Department veteran Lt. Michael McCaffery, who has been with the department for 14 years, was off duty and alone when a frantic stranger came knocking and pleading for help.

News 12 Staff

Dec 11, 2021, 9:35 PM

Updated 1,033 days ago

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An off-duty Yonkers firefighter was in the right place at the right time - and a woman is still alive because of it.
Yonkers Fire Department veteran Lt. Michael McCaffery, who has been with the department for 14 years, was off duty and alone when a frantic stranger came knocking and pleading for help.
"I answered the door and a gentleman said he has an overdosing woman down the street,” McCaffery told News 12. “We just happened to have some spare Narcan in our medical cabinet. I grabbed some rubber gloves."
McCaffery’s quick action and lifesaving run brought him to Buena Vista Avenue where he found a woman, believed to be in her 30s, without a pulse. He administered one dose of Narcan and began chest compressions while police crews were on the way.
Yonkers police officers arrived minutes later, giving the woman second Narcan dose - which allowed her to survive.
People are calling McCaffery a hero, at least not to his face.
"I just happened to be the guy here,” he said modestly. “If it were somebody else, they would have done the same thing."