When the “big one” hits, who will rescue the rescuers?

Nearly 20 years ago that job went to Mike Kubeisy, a neighbor who pulled LAPD Officer Joseph Jordan, his wife and three other residents out of the same Northridge Meadows Apartments complex following the Jan. 17, 1994 temblor that measured 6.7 and took 57 lives.

Kubeisy's actions allowed Jordan …

… to do his job and save others. “Jordan,” states the L.A. Police Protective League, “immediately began pulling his neighbors out of the pancaked apartment building.”

In 1995, on The 700 Club, Jordan thanked Kubeisy:

God sent him, he did not know that. He was preordained to be a rescuer. What can I say to the man who saved my life, to my buddy here.

The officer died after suffering from a heart attack the following year.

Today, more than 19 years later, the LAPD will also thank Kubeisy — this time during a 9:30 a.m. ceremony inside the Police Administration Building downtown.

According to the LAPPL:

In addition to helping save Officer Jordan, Mike Kubeisy scrambled through the wreckage and pulled Patricia Silden from the rubble of her collapsed third-story balcony. Later that year, they married and bought a house in Simi Valley. Today, they have two children – Garret and Connor.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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