Long Beach firefighters rescue woman and autistic son

A Long Beach woman was in critical but stable condition after she and her autistic son were rescued from an Olive Street fire early Monday morning by city firefighters.

The fire began at 3:15 a.m. in the upstairs apartment of a two-family home at 322 East Olive. The tenant, 41-year-old Glenna King, awoke to discover intense smoke and heat. Fire officials and Nassau County police said that King attempted to wake her 6-year-old son, Maxwell, who was asleep in another room, but could only retreat into her bedroom. She called 911 moments before she lost consciousness, fire officials said.

About 50 Long Beach firefighters and emergency personnel responded to the scene within minutes. Assistant Fire Chief Antonio Cuevas described a dramatic scene as firefighters raced into the home.

"There was so much smoke that your visibility is zero, and we don't know what we're crawling into in there," said Cuevas, who, along with firefighter Anthony Fallon and Capt. Hadrick Ray, were among the first to enter the home.

Cuevas and Fallon felt around for doorknobs in the smoke-filled rooms. "The first room [Fallon] went into was the child's room, and the second he opened the door he put his hand in there and felt the bed," Cuevas said. "The kid was laying right there." Cuevas added that Fallon carried the boy out through thick plumes of smoke.

Assuming that a parent wouldn't leave a child, Cuevas continued the search, and discovered King unconscious in her bedroom. "When we found her, she was lying face-down and had her phone by her hand," Cuevas said. Fallon and Ray carried her outside.

King was taken to Long Beach Medical Center, and later transferred to Nassau University Medical Center, where she was being treated for smoke inhalation and inhalation burns as of Wednesday, fire officials and police said. Maxwell was not injured and was released to his father.