A Bronx mailman is being hailed a hero after making two life-saving special deliveries Wednesday.
Postal worker Jermaine Shirley caught twin 11-month-old boys tossed down to him by their panicked father from the third floor of a burning Bronx apartment building.
“It was just instincts. They just kicked in right away,” Shirley said after the dramatic 7 a.m. double rescue. “I have a family, too. I would want somebody to do the same for me.”
Thanks to Shirley, little Ishmeal and Israel Codner escaped the blaze without a scratch.
“They’re fine, thank God! It really is a miracle,” said the twins’ mom, Nikalia Codner, after her tots were examined and released from Jacobi Medical Center.
Shirley, dressed in his U.S. Postal Service uniform, was heading to work when he spotted smoke drifting from his apartment building on E. 220th St. in Wakefield.
He said he tracked the fire to a second-floor apartment. When he kicked in the door, he was hit by a blast of smoke.
The postal worker said he banged on all the apartment doors in the three-story building to alert neighbors. As he was evacuating his wife and baby, he heard the twins’ father, Everdean Codner, screaming for help from a third-floor apartment.
“I opened up the side windows and I saw a lot of smoke,” Everdean Codner said.
He feared the worst as flames and smoke trapped him, his wife and their two baby boys. By the time he dressed the children in onesies, flames were shooting up from the second floor.
“I tried to make it through the front door but there was nothing but smoke,” the dad said. “I couldn’t get through. The smoke was heavy. It pushed us back inside.
“I wanted to get my babies out and I ran to the fire escape,” the father said.
Shirley climbed atop a one-story shed behind the building and through the smoke spotted the frightened father holding his children.
“I told him, ‘Drop the baby,'” said Shirley, who recently started working at a postal facility in Greenwich, Conn.
Asked what he was thinking as Codner prepared to toss the children to him, Shirley said, “Nothing.”
“I was just ready to catch,” he said.
Shirley caught the first toddler and handed him off to Codner’s nephew, 25-year-old Euwan Lynch. Shirley then caught the second boy and jumped down to the ground.
“I just thank God that everyone is safe — my wife and kid — everyone is safe,” Shirley said.
Once the Codner children were out of harm’s way, their parents jumped.
“I had to jump from the third-floor fire escape,” Codner said. “My wife had to jump from like half way down the ladder.”
The grateful dad said Shirley and his nephew, Lynch, made a courageous team.
“Jermaine and my nephew are both heroes. I have to thank them. They’re the best,” Codner said. “We’re here today because of our neighbor’s quick response. It’s the best holiday gift you could ever ask for.”
Adding an extra twist to the miraculous chain of events, Codner said he was thankful he overslept and was late for work. He shuddered to think what might have happened to his wife and kids had he left for work on time.
“I was supposed to be at work when it happened,” said Codner, who works for a moving company. “God put me here today for a reason.”
Officials said three people suffered minor injuries in the blaze that was brought under control at 7:49 a.m.
Fire marshals said an accidental electrical fire started in a second-floor apartment where no one was home at the time.
