Fritz Sam started his day driving an Uber in New York City, but moments into his second ride, his morning took a terrifying turn.
Suddenly, he found himself sprinting toward a burning building.
He had picked up a passenger, Jemimah James Wei and she was headed to LaGuardia Airport to catch a 10 a.m. flight, but five minutes into the ride, Fritz noticed some activity going on in front of a brownstone,and he soon realized it was a fire.
Although his passenger had a flight to catch, Sam turned to her and asked: “Can we stop and help?” “Obviously!” Jemimah told him.
Flames were shooting out of the building with glass shards everywhere and Jemimah said it looked really bad.
But about six minutes after Fritz got to the scene, the brownstone was empty, and a team of police officers and firefighters had arrived to extinguish the flames. Nobody was hurt in the fire, and the cause is under investigation.
Once first responders got to work and it was clear everyone was safe, he got back in his vehicle with Jemima and somehow, she made her flight, but before taking off, she decided to share the ordeal on Twitter. By the time she landed, her tweet had been shared thousands of times.
Uber also honored Fritz with a “hometown hero” award and added him to its 2022 Yearbook, which commemorated several standout drivers and couriers. He said that while he’s humbled by the praise, he simply did what he felt he had to do.