A story of heroism is coming out of New York City after a man rescued a young boy from a burning apartment building.

Horia Creatan was working at a nearby store when he heard screams.

"I rushed outside ... to see waves of smoke coming out the window," he said. "I ran and got my ladder. I got close to the fire escape and climbed my way up."

Cretan said that when he first got to the window, no one else was around. A man screaming from the window told Cretan there was a small boy who needed help too.

"That's when I broke the windows, to make sure that the smoke comes out ... I needed to see where the boy was," he told ABC News.

Cretan grabbed the child, wrapped him in a curtain, and carried him to safety. Moments later, firemen arrived and helped Cretan with the child. The boy is now in the hospital, but is expected to survive.

Oddly enough, it's not the first time that Cretan saved a life from a fire.

As a 12-year-old in Romania, Cretan saved his younger sister from a fire that killed his father.