Bronx Fire: Cancer Patient Says He Won The ‘Lottery Of Life’ After Surviving Deadly Blaze
Earlier today we reported on the Bronx fire that broke out at an apartment building, which killed at least 19 people. Joseph Brannigan, a 61-year-old terminal bladder cancer patient, says he almost died; but, thanks to the FDNY, he survived the deadly blaze, winning the “lottery of life.”
Along with his nephew Michael Joseph, Brannigan was inside his fifth-floor unit at the West Bronx complex when smoke began to surround him just before 11 a.m. Sunday (Jan. 9). Brannigan says his nephew said, “We’re going to die in here,” as he pulled his hand to escape the building.
The two eventually lost touch in the smoke, leaving Brannigan to collapse onto his hallway floor. If it weren’t for a few firemen dragging him inside his apartment, giving him oxygen and getting him out of the building, he wouldn’t have made it. Brannigan ended up reuniting with his nephew outside — who says he went down to alert firemen to rescue his uncle. Brannigan exclaims, “We won the lottery of life, the big jackpot. We lost everything in the fire. We lost everything. [But] we are the richest people in the world because we won the lottery of life today.”
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