Amazon Deliveryman Runs Into Burning Woodbridge Home

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — An Amazon driver who just happened to be in the neighborhood ran into a burning home in Woodbridge on the afternoon of May 20 and helped an elderly woman and her granddaughter safely evacuate.

The rescue was reported by his employer, Amazon, and confirmed by Woodbridge Police and a neighbor who witnessed it.

The fire broke out in a private home on Crows Mill Road in the Fords section, said Woodbridge Police Capt. Scott Kuzma. The incident occurred at about 2 p.m., a neighbor said.

Amazon delivery driver Wakie Medina was driving on his usual route through Fords. The fire started in the rear of the home, which backs onto Grace Street, a cul-de-sac. Medina is very familiar with that street, as he often drops off packages there, he said.

"It's always quiet on that street," said Medina, 30, a Newark resident. "I turned down and I saw some smoke. At first I thought someone was having a cookout; but when I got closer I realized, no, this is too much smoke. I have to see what's going on. This is just too much smoke."

Medina parked his truck and, at the same time, Fords resident Ashley Latham said she happened to look out her window and saw the smoke coming from the back of the home.

"I immediately called 911, and my mom and I came out and went towards the smoke," she told Patch. "That's when I saw our local Amazon deliveryman running towards the smoke, and running right up onto the back porch. He ran right into the house."

The roof of the back porch was actually on fire, but that did not stop Medina, she said.

Medina said that when he first got there, he saw a teen boy whom he estimated to be 14 to 15 outside the home trying to put the fire out with what looked like a watering can.

"I told him this fire is too bad; it's too much. I asked him who else is in the house, and he said, 'My Grandma and sister are upstairs,'" he recalled. "They actually did not know the house was on fire. The house was filled with smoke. I just ran up the stairs and shouted at them 'Yo, the house is on fire! Come down!'"

Medina helped the elderly woman and the girl, whom he estimated was about 9 or 10, safely get out of the home. By that time, Fords fire trucks had arrived.

Medina quietly walked back to his Amazon truck and then chatted with Latham, the neighbor, while the fire was extinguished and the street was cleared. Neither the grandmother nor the girl required medical attention as far as she could tell, Latham said.

"It wasn't a big fire, but I just thought it was such a brave thing to do," she said. "Anyone else could have just gotten back in the truck and waited because we knew fire trucks were on the way. But he ran towards the house. I really think he would have done the same thing if it had been a bigger fire."

He was "as cool as a cucumber" as he chatted with her after the rescue, she said. In a twist, Latham actually works for Amazon, too, and she was the one who reported Medina's rescue to company management.

Medina downplayed his heroism.

"I did what I had to do and got out of the way and went back to my truck," he said. "I was in the right place at the right time."

But the whole incident reinforced to him how much delivery drivers are a part of the neighborhoods where they drop off packages. And, incredibly, this isn't the first time Medina has noticed a house fire.

"I've been at Amazon for five months, and in West Orange a few months ago a tenant actually left the stove on once and there were flames," he said.

"I always be in that area, and I always deliver to that house. That's why I had to go check it out," said Medina, who said he takes his truck down Grace Street in Fords three times a week. "I wasn't looking for recognition. There wasn't nobody out besides me. (His delivery route) is like my second home. I'm there eight hours plus; I'm there more than I'm home. That's how I look at it."

Medina works out the new Amazon warehouse facility in Carteret. Last week, the Carteret warehouse honored Medina as its Driver of the Month, presenting him with a special plaque, a thank-you card signed by Amazon leadership, a backpack full of gifts and a 40-inch smart TV.

Also, the Fords residents who live on that cul-de-sac collected money and gave a $400 gift card to Medina, said an Amazon spokeswoman.

"It's cool, but I wasn't expecting any of this," he said. "I just did that out of the kindness of my heart, I guess."

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