Matt Fagan

Staff writer, @fagan_nj

ROCKAWAY – The quick actions of a former New York Giants football player helped rescue an older man trapped on the roof of a burning home in the Green Pond Lake community.

Cole Farrand said he woke up Monday at 1 a.m. to his mother's screams of "Fire!" The 23-year-old said that at first he thought the Shadyside Lane home he shares with his parents was on fire, then maybe his grandfather's place around the corner. He said he ran down the street toward the flames, which were "20 to 30 feet in the air."

He said the home was not his grandfather's, but a nearby house at 17 Dawson Drive. He said he found a woman outside the home who seemed disoriented but was able to tell him she was Jean Moore and had been in the house with her husband, Jim. The woman told Farrand she was able to get out through a window but didn't know if her husband was still inside. Farrand, who spent some time on the Giants' practice squad, said he spotted the missing husband sitting on the edge of the burning home's roof.

"There fire's in back of the house," he said.It was apparent the whole house was about to be engulfed, he said.

Farrand said he ran home, grabbed his dad's extension ladder and returned.

"When I get back, the guy's lying down," said Farrand, who added that the man was probably trying to get below the thick smoke billowing from the window. Farrand said that at that moment, he thought the man was getting ready to jump. He extended the ladder and helped him to get down.

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The house ''went up in no time at all," Farrand said, adding that he didn't have a chance to talk with the Moores after firefighters arrived on the scene. The firefighters did praise Farrand for his quick actions.

"I felt a little bit awkward. People were calling me a hero," said Farrand, no rookie to the limelight. A standout football player with the University of Maryland, he was signed as a free agent with the Giants in 2015, survived training camp and was signed to the practice squad as a linebacker for a brief time.

"Then they needed a wide receiver and I was let go," Cole said, adding that he's still training in hopes of making another NFL team.

Jill Rotta, who owned the home and had rented it to the Moores, said the house is burned to the ground, but she credited Farrand's quick thinking for the rescue of her tenants.

Rotta said she rented the fully furnished home to the couple on a short-term basis. The Moores have since moved into a nearby hotel, where they are deciding where to go next.

Rockaway Fire Director Robert Sheard said the fire burned for roughly seven hours before it was brought under control around 8:30 a.m. Monday morning.

Although the fire companies arrived on scene within 10 minutes of the call, he said, the frigid early-morning temperatures had an effect on their ability to extinguish the blaze.

"Because of the severe cold weather, it took some time to cut holes in the ice to get holes to draft water from the lake," Sheard said.

Rotta's house was destroyed, as were the three vehicles in the driveway and the nearby shed, said fire officials.

The adjoining home at 21 Dawson Drive, Sheard said, also suffered damage. He credited aggressive firefighting by all five of Rockaway's fire companies with keeping the intense flames from spreading in a neighborhood of tightly packed houses.

He said no cause for the fire has been determined and that it is currently under investigation.

Rotta said none of the houses damaged were primary residences but served a vacation homes.