Man who fled war in Ukraine assists in rescue after car goes into water at Freeport marina
FREEPORT, N.Y. -- A man who arrived in New York from Ukraine just four days ago is being hailed as a hero after he jumped into the water on Long Island to save a driver whose car had gone under.
Volodymyr Zubko is from Kharkiv, where he says there is a rocket attack every day. So he wasn't expecting anything like what he experienced as he sat in his new home in the usually quiet town of Freeport. That is, until he heard a commotion.
"When I look out the water I saw car in the water," Zubko said.
Zubko didn't waste any time. He raced outside when he saw a car floating in the marina.
"A lot of people in this ... on the boat ... just screamed, 'Help! Somebody help!' but nobody jumped into the water," Zubko said.
So the Ukrainian immigrant decided he had to do something and dove in. He got to the driver, who was unconsious and floating in the water. Zubko brought him to shore.
When asked if he was scared, Zubko said, "No, no, it was just very quick, very quick. I don't think about it."
On Tuesday afternoon, authorities pulled the car out of the marina, but they are still trying to figure out how it wound up there.
"Reports are that the car entered the water on the Hudson Avenue side, went over the boat and entered into the actual canal," said Michael Williams of the Freeport Fire Department.
Witnesses said after the driver was pulled to safety he was being combative with police, who had to cuff him.
"He was screaming, screaming, screaming, screaming like he did not want to be rescued," said John Schepanski of Glen Cove.
Witnesses said it's just lucky that at 9 a.m., when the accident happened, nobody else was in the water.
"Shocking. It's somewhat scary. People swim here and people kayak and a lot of other things, so it's another thing I guess you have to watch out for these days," John Osei-Tutu said.
For his part, Zubko said he just arrived from Ukraine four days ago. He was going to be in the U.S. for at least a month to escape the war. He said he does not consider himself a hero.
"No. I don't think so. I just helped someone," Zubko said.
"We do and he did a phenomenal job. And if he stays here more than a month I'm getting him an application for the fire department," Williams said.
The driver of the car was listed in stable condition.
Zubko is a software engineer and said he can't do that back home while the Russians attack his city. He said he hopes he can make some money here and use it to help his people.
