HILLIARD, Fla. --
A massive house fire in Hilliard left two firefighters injured Wednesday after being trapped inside the garage of the burning home.
On Monday, Channel 4 obtained the video recorded from the dashboard camera on the fire chief's car.
The video shows the raging flames the fire crews witnessed as they first arrived at the scene, and then the mayday call can be heard blaring across the radio, signaling a firefighter was in distress.
The garage ceiling of the home burning in the 22000 block of Fortress Lane collapsed on Lt. Patrick Cauley.
A few weeks ago, the Nassau County Fire Department held training on mayday procedures.
"I thought he was going to die," said Lt. Glen Harper. "He was trapped in such a fashion that, literally, 800 pounds were on top of him," said Harper.
He said Cauley also feared it was the end and the two shared very emotional words.
"He stated to me that he was burning and that his arm was on fire, and that he thought he was going to die. He said to me, 'I'm going to die on this floor in this garage, in this house. I'm going to die.' Of course, I reassured him that he wasn??t," Harper said.
Harper and others got Cauley out of the garage by using chainsaws to create a tunnel into the firefighter.
"His foot was trapped. So, we had to pull his foot out of his boot and we physically pulled him up out of the debris and crawled out the way we came in," Harper said.
Cauley was able to survive thanks to his fellow firefighters and also because of his protective gear. He was wearing gloves, but boiling water made its way through the seal and burned his hands.
Harper suffered minor burns to his neck during the incident, but said his injuries were a small price to pay for saving the life of a fellow firefighter.
"He said he was happy I was there and that he was glad to be alive and he never wanted to be trapped again," Harper said. "He's a man a very few words, so for him, that's a lot. He let me know that he appreciated what we had done for him."
Cauley continues to recover from the second- and third-degree burns to his wrists and hands.
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