Man Saves Mystery Cabbie During Storm

Story here. Inspiring and more to the point, noble. But as a man coming to someone else's rescue, he is indeed a hero, but risking his life for another person is somewhat expected, is it not? He even expected it of himself. Imagine if he had been a woman. Indeed he (as she) may have done the same, but would she have felt the same obligation to act as he said he felt? And would she also not be now lauded nationally as a hero rather than just as an ordinary fellow doing an extraordinary thing due to circumstance? Excerpt:

'Jon Candelaria, a 25-year-old who works in accounting, was in his apartment near the East River, looking out the window as the streets below filled with water. He saw the taxi do a 360-degree turn and end up in the rising flood. Candelaria, dressed in basketball shorts, threw on a jacket and sneakers and rushed down into the street.

"It was so dangerous but it didn't even matter to me," he told ABC News. "All that mattered was, not even my own life, but just getting this guy out of the car and saving his life. That's all that mattered."
...
Candelaria said the water was chest-deep and freezing.

"When I got down there and I started walking through the water, then it hit me. I could pretty much die right now," he said. "I thought about my daughter and I told myself, if anything was to happen to me, I know my family could take care of her. I know that for a fact."

He could see the cab rocking and briefly thought about how he could be electrocuted by falling power lines, but pushed that thought from his mind and kept going. When he got to the driver, the water was already up to his chin.

"I'm glad I got there on time. I guess five more minutes and he would've been drowning," he said. "I put him on this shoulder. I was like, 'Please don't panic, don't freak out. The water is very high.' And he was like, 'All right.'"'