CBS2 video. September 30, 2009. A dramatic rescue was caught on tape in the Bronx. A Good Samaritan is credited with saving a child's life after he helped firefighters pull the victim out of a burning building.

The boy involved was recovering Wednesday night.

"He couldn't breathe. I just held his head up. I put my hand underneath his neck so he could breathe better," Billy Cretan said.

When Cretan saw smoke and flames pouring from the apartment above his store his instincts took over.

"I kicked in gear, put the ladder down and I went upstairs and did the best I could," Cretan said.

Cretan climbed into the burning building through the fire escape and found 4-year-old Christopher Ramcharran choking on smoke.

"I felt his heartbeat; it was faint but all right. I made sure I protected him with the curtain 'because they were throwing glass from on top of the stairs," Cretan said, referring to the firefighters worked feverishly above.

Cretan used his body to shield the boy from smoke and flames, and carried his limp body down the fire escape.

Emergency crews were waiting and immediately began giving Christopher oxygen.

His 12-year-old brother, Bhesham Singh, looked on -- horrified.

"It's just really frightening," Bhesham said. "He's a real hero, too, because he saved my brother."

Cretan, himself, was taken to the hospital a short time later suffering from smoke inhalation.

He insisted he only did what anyone would do, but Christopher's father is eternally grateful for his heroics.

"I have to praise him and if I was a wealthier guy I would give him something for what he had done for me, because my kids are my life," Ragesh Ramcharran said.

Both Christopher and the man who saved his life were expected to remain at Jacobi Medical Center through Wednesday night to be treated for smoke inhalation. The child is in serious but stable condition. The Good Samaritan is expected to be okay.