By Daniel Massey
The condition of a 65-year-old Woodhaven woman rescued by a firefighter from her cluttered apartment on Labor Day has improved slightly.
Mea Lin was listed in critical but stable condition this week at New York Wiell Cornell Burn Center in Manhattan, said Tracy Hickenbottom, a hospital spokeswoman. She said Lin had shown “somewhat of an improvement.” since being transferred to the burn center from Jamaica Hospital early Tuesday morning, but she would not discuss the victim’s condition further.
Lin was lying face up on her kitchen floor, unconscious, when firefighter John Tepedino of Ladder 143 crawled under flames in a long hallway full of old papers and clothes to rescue her.
Lt. George Forest of Ladder 143 said Tepedino’s efforts gave Lin a chance to survive.
“The fire was blowing out of the kitchen. He had to crawl through a long hallway and under the flames to get her out,” he said. “He saved her life.”
The rescue was made more difficult by the messy condition of Lin’s apartment, which firefighters described as a “Collier’s Mansion.”
The blaze started in Lin’s kitchen at about 7:30 p.m. either because of food on the stove or an electrical problem, officials said.
