Clay, NY - Steve Zaferakis was at home on Dampier Circle late at night several months ago putting out the garbage when his pager went off. There was a crash about a quarter mile away on Route 57 in Clay. Arriving at the scene just north of Casual Estates mobile home park, the Moyers Corners Battalion 1 chief heard...
Moyers Corners Battalion 1 Chief Steve Zaferakis, 35, of Dampier Circle, Clay, was honored recently by the Clay Town Board for his quick actions on March 28 that helped save a 1-month-old who was in a car that crashed on Route 57 in Clay.Clay, NY - Steve Zaferakis was at home on Dampier Circle late at night several months ago putting out the garbage when his pager went off. There was a crash about a quarter mile away on Route 57 in Clay.
Arriving at the scene just north of Casual Estates mobile home park, the Moyers Corners Battalion 1 chief heard a woman screaming hysterically, “My baby, my baby.”
He saw an infant seat flipped over with the driver, Jorge Palermo, the baby’s father, laying partially on top of it. The 1-month-old baby hung from the straps.
“At that point I stopped hearing the baby’s cries,” he said. “I heard her stop breathing.”
Deputy Chief E.J. Stevens helped move Palermo off the infant car seat. Zaferakis stabilized the baby’s neck.
“Her eyes were rolling back into her head. She didn’t have the right color,” he said. “I gently rubbed her chest and I did a quick swipe of her mouth. I got into the baby’s mouth and cleared some saliva. Then she took what I thought was her first breath.”
View full sizeThe crash scene March 28 on Route 57, between Provo Drive and the entrance to Casual Estates mobile home park in Clay.After the baby, Analise Palmero, was whisked away in an ambulance, Zaferakis hoped she was going to be OK. It wasn’t until last week, that he saw for himself that the baby was perfectly fine.
Clay town officials recently honored Zaferakis for his quick actions on March 28 that may have saved baby Analise’s life that night.
“I don’t feel like a hero,” said Zaferakis, 35. “I was doing what I was trained to do. Everyone was directing me to the infant helped. She was the priority. We were doing everything we could to get to her and save her.”
Zaferakis has been a Moyers Corners volunteer firefighter since 1994. He’s also a staff engineer at C&S Engineers’ Life Safety Division. He and his wife, Karen, have a 2-year-old daughter, Alexia, and another daughter due Oct. 10.
For months, he had wondered how baby Analise was doing. He found out by accident last week.
Zaferakis responded to a stove fire July 14 at a house on Buttonwood Trail in Clay’s Pine Gate South neighborhood. To his surprise, the baby’s mother, Jamie Finnegan, was there with her daughter.
“I was very, very excited to see them, and to see that baby was doing great,” Zaferakis said, adding that he got to hold Analise. “She is absolutely adorable — big blue eyes.”
View full sizeMoyers Corners volunteer firefighters help at the crash scene March 28 on Route 57 in Clay.Finnegan told Zaferakis that after Analise was taken to the hospital, she was released hours later, without even a scratch on her. Finnegan, 21, was treated at an area hospital for a concussion.
But the driver, Palermo, 27, remains in a coma at Upstate University Hospital, Finnegan said. He’s suffered head trauma. After the accident, Onondaga County sheriff’s deputies charged Palermo with driving while intoxicated.
Catie O’Toole can be reached at cotoole@syracuse.com or 470-2134.