This Thanksgiving, Norwood firefighter David Lazzaro is happy to be alive.
On Friday, while battling a blaze from a rooftop, Lazzaro took a terrifying 25-foot fall, landing on asphalt and then tumbling into a glass door that shattered.
"I just stepped and my feet kicked out from underneath me and I just started sliding," Lazzaro, 33, recalled. "I tried stopping myself. I worked a long time as a framer and a roofer, so I'm pretty damn good on roofs."
Despite his fall, which sent him to the hospital by helicopter for the second time — the first was for a severed finger — Lazzaro suffered only a broken right foot and soft tissue damage in his left.
"I am truly amazed that I don't have worse injuries," Lazzaro said. "I'm saying my prayers now. If I wasn't religious before, I am now."
Lazzaro, who is also a paramedic for the Norwood Fire Department, is a four-year veteran. On Friday, he had responded to an EMS call before reporting to fight the fire at the Norwest Woods apartment complex.
When he started sliding, Lazzaro said, he knew he was going to fall. He aimed for a bush below, but missed, landing on his feet on the asphalt.
"I've gotten hurt on the job, doing construction," Lazzaro said, "but I've never fallen like this before.
"I mean, the fly took forever. . . . I was just trying to prepare myself mentally."
On Tuesday, a construction accident in Jamaica Plain severely injured one worker and fatally injured another who fell about the same distance as Lazzaro.
Lazzaro said his family — including his pregnant wife, 2-year-old daughter, and infant son — was happy he is all right, adding that he considers himself "very lucky."
"Accidents happen," he said. "I'm just happy that I'm alive."
Kiera Blessing can be reached at kiera.blessing@globe.com.