((PKG)) GHANAIAN AMERICAN RESCUER – FIRE HERO
((Banner: The Ultimate Sacrifice))
((Reporter/Camera: Salem Solomon))
((Adapted by: Bronwyn Benito))
((Map: New York, New York City))
((STAFF SGT. RUBEN MARTINEZ-ORTIZ, FRIEND OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
I would want to serve with somebody like Emmanuel Mensah. You know, there’s people that join the military for, you now, whatever reason and stuff like that, but then you know who you'd want to serve next to and he was definitely one person that I definitely would have wanted to serve next to.
((MARGO PERKINS, NEIGHBOR OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
He used to call me ‘Mom.’ Whenever I needed something done, he always did it.
((KWABENA MENSAH, FATHER OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
Everybody that knows him, if you ask them that if you called him, he would help you.
((MARGO PERKINS, NEIGHBOR OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
Emmanuel, oh my goodness, anytime.
((STAFF SGT. RUBEN MARTINEZ-ORTIZ, FRIEND OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
He was motivated. He was. He was very motivated to start his career because he wanted to be a cop eventually. That’s what his goal was. He wanted to be a cop and in order for you to be a cop, you need to be a citizen. So, he figured the National Guard would help him.
The last text that I received from him was in Thanksgiving, actually. Basically he thanked me for making him the person that he was today and that was a soldier. And that right there, I think about that a lot. I do.
I was home and they told me that, you know, there’s a fire happening in the Bronx. They found, like, dog tags and they couldn’t recognize the corpse, but they knew the name. They told me to go online real quick and find out if that’s him. And when I saw it, I was like, that can’t be right. That can’t be him.
((KWABENA MENSAH, FATHER OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
He will find a way. But for him to have that courage and get people out. Comes first, went back again into the fire. One of the facts of this hasn’t, the fire department hasn’t come. They had to have them coming, but they haven’t got there yet. And then got another person and went back in, and then went back again, back and forth. The last person he got out was a pregnant woman.
((STAFF SGT. RUBEN MARTINEZ-ORTIZ, FRIEND OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
Couldn’t believe it. I started thinking about when I first met him and I was like, you know what, it makes sense. Like he, he was that type.
((KWABENA MENSAH, FATHER OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
It was the smoke that, you know. And then when they found him, he lives on the third floor, they found him on the fourth floor trying to go in and rescue somebody else.
((STAFF SGT. RUBEN MARTINEZ-ORTIZ, FRIEND OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
He went above and beyond and he didn’t have to, and he barely started his career. He just came out of training.
((Courtesy: New York Army National Guard))
So, I could just start picturing what else he could have done throughout his career. What he could have accomplished throughout his career with a mindset like that.
((KWABENA MENSAH, FATHER OF EMMANUEL MENSAH))
His legacy has to be remembered for the time and that is twofold has to remain remembered. He came to this world to do what he did.
And once and for all he did what he was supposed to do and is out of this world. But, he has to be remembered as a hero.
