Buckheit in his other role in the community - head men’s basketball coach at Curtis High School. From a photo essay earlier this year in the New York Post.

By BARRY LANK

A ball of fire blew up under him late Sunday night. But a local firefighter is recovering today in the burn unit at New York Hospital.

The New York Post describes how Richard Buckheit of West Brighton tried to move someone’s car off a smoking manhole in Brooklyn. Seconds after he got behind the wheel, flames blasted around him.

Buckheit suffered third-degree burns to his neck and face and second-degree burns to his left hand and ear. But already he has been giving news interviews from the hospital.

This isn’t the first time newspapers have hailed Buckheit as a hero. SIlive.com also details how he and another Staten Island firefighter pulled three little girls from a burning apartment in 2007.