Volunteer firefighter Capt. Adam Ebersole, 37, opened the rear door of the burning Strasburg home and stepped into choking smoke.
"Get down!" yelled firefighter Lt. Jake Miller, 26, who entered behind Ebersole and motioned that they should crawl below the hanging bank of smoke as they searched for occupants of the home.
On a frosty January night slick with a nuisance snow, the six-man crew of Lampeter's Engine 1 had raced to 107 Miller St. in Strasburg from a nearby car wreck.
Encountering a woman outside who was screaming that people were inside, Ebersole, Miller and firefighter William Platt went in as the house burned. For their heroism, the Lampeter volunteers will be honored tonight by the Lancaster County Firemen's Association, officials said.
This is the story of how the squad saved two lives.
Ebersole and Miller were home asleep when their pagers roused them about 2 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, to respond to a roll-over crash at Strasburg Pike and Pioneer Road. At the accident site, the fire call came in, and police cleared the firefighters to go. The fire was less than three miles away.
On arriving, Ebersole saw smoke coming from the basement, but it wasn't heavy. He helped put two ladders to windows of the two-story, three-bedroom house.
Crawling behind Ebersole into the smoke-filled rear room, Miller turned off his flashlight because the bright beam was useless in the heavy smoke. They moved along a wall, feeling it with their left hands to stay oriented in the dark.
In the first room Ebersole saw fire coming through the floor. He yelled to Platt, the third man in, to get a hose. Ebersole continued moving forward, finding a bathroom door and closing it.
They continued crawling to where fire was spreading. The heat was growing almost too intense to stand.
"We got to get out of here," Ebersole told Miller. But Miller said he found a bedroom door.
On pushing the door open, Miller heard a groan. He felt someone lying on the floor. It was 19-year-old Hunter Mentzer, a beer distributor worker and community college student.
"I got one!" Miller yelled.
Ebersole entered and went to a window, where a ladder led to safety. Having dropped his ax, Ebersole used his fist to break away the glass and frame.
Ebersole also came across another person lying on the floor. It was Emelie Good, 18, Mentzer's girlfriend and also a community college student.
From a sitting position, Miller had taken hold of Mentzer, who was unresponsive, and pulled him to the window.
Meanwhile, Ebersole tried to pick up Good, noticing a severe burn on her foot. It was then that Ebersole felt as if he was burning, too, and he climbed out the window. It was only a six-foot drop. He would later find his gear scorched.
Miller picked up the 135-pound Mentzer as Platt, from outside, came up the ladder. Miller threaded Mentzer through the opening. Platt got his arms under him. With other crew members reaching from the ground, they got Mentzer safely down.
Miller had no clue how fast the fire was spreading. He heard Deputy Chief John Alexander yelling at him to get out.
"No, I have one more!" Miller shouted. He picked Good up and got her into the hands of a firefighter at the top of the ladder. Miller then climbed out like a shot.
Neither Mentzer nor Good remember the fire or their rescue, but they realize they almost didn't survive. The stroke of luck was that firefighters were at the nearby crash when the fire, its cause still undetermined, started.
Good suffered burns over 30 percent of her body, most severely to her lower legs and feet. She returned home April 8 from Crozier-Chester Medical Center's burn unit after more than a dozen operations. She returns Monday for one more. In coming weeks she'll start physical therapy.
Mentzer spent about a month at Crozier-Chester for burns covering 17 percent of his body, particularly at his mid-section.
The firefighters were modest as they talked about their roles in the rescue, a first for all of them.
"It's what we trained to do," said Miller, whose ears sustained second-degree burns.
But the teens appreciate the heroism that saved them that night.
"I wouldn't run into a burning building," Good said. "That's for sure."
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