Syracuse, N.Y.— Twenty-three years ago, Christina Micheletti and her family almost died in a fire that ripped through her home on Syracuse’s West Side.
Christina, 21, escaped on to the roof of their apartment on Avery Avenue. Anna Curtis, 14, grabbed Christina’s 9-month-old daughter Jordan out of her crib. Anna collapsed in the baby’s room due to smoke inhalation.
Syracuse firefighters Mark Hatch and Rob Brown found the two girls in the burning home. Hatch handed the baby out the window to another firefighter and he and Brown took Anna down the stairs.
Anna and Jordan were rushed to the hospital in critical condition, but they survived the fire.
Every Thanksgiving since, the family has delivered pies to the Syracuse firefighters. Today, they are delivering more than 20 pies to the 11 fire stations in the city.
“I’m obviously very thankful everything worked out the way it did,” Christina said. “Things could’ve gone a little different.”
Syracuse firefighers respond to the September 1998 fire that sent Anna Curtis and Jordan Micheletti to the hospital. Ever since, the family has delivered pies to fire stations on Thanksgiving. (Photo by Tim Reese | Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard)
The fire started around 11 p.m. Sept. 16, 1998 – a Wednesday night - in the home at 606 Avery Ave., just a few houses from West Genesee Street.
On the second floor, Brown and Hatch found their way into a bedroom where the smoke forced them onto their knees, according to an article in The Post-Standard. Hatch spotted the baby on the floor with his flashlight but didn’t know if the infant was dead or alive.
Brown seconds later called out that he found what he thought was an adult. It was Anna. He and other firefighters carried her down the stairs and out the front door.
Hatch took the baby, Jordan, to another room and handed her to a firefighter on a ladder who carried her to safety.
After they were rescued, Anna spent 33 days in the hospital and had burns to 25% of her body and a breathing tube. Jordan, who suffered smoke inhalation, got out of the hospital in a couple days.
Anna was hailed as a hero at the time for getting the baby out of the fire. Anna was staying at the house at the time of the fire.
In this front-page article in 1998, Syracuse firefighters praised Anna Curtis for helping save a 9-month-old baby from a fire on Avery Avenue on Sept. 16, 1998.
Jordan, who graduated from Solvay High School and is now 23, doesn’t remember the day of the fire, but said she knows the firefighters are the reason she is alive today.
“I’m very grateful they were there to save me,” she said.
Jordan said she has been dropping off pies as long as she can remember and enjoys it.
Hatch is now district fire chief at Station 8 on South Salina Street. (Brown has retired)
“Every time I go by that house I think about it,” Hatch said this week.
With the family coming each year, Hatch said he has been able to watch Jordan and Anna grow up.
“It kind of makes you smile inside,” he said. “It’s something we hope for.”
Hatch said that most families helped by the fire department come by and express their appreciation, but the annual pie giveaway is a huge gesture.
“They always say the fire department goes above and beyond but they (the family) go above and beyond,” he said.
Anna, now 38, has three children and Christina, now 44, has had two other children since the fire. They still live in Central New York.
“If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have the family that we have,” said Anna’s mother, Lisa Curtis, who also helps deliver the pies each year. “We’re just forever grateful to the Syracuse Fire Department.”
Staff writer Rylee Kirk covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? Reach her at 315-396-5961 or rkirk@syracuse.com.