A Charleston firefighter who felt slighted by his chief after a daring effort to rescue a woman during a fire has resigned from the department.
Cameron Day, 32, was working a three-alarm fire at a historic home July 14 when the flames and smoke began to overwhelm the structure, prompting incident command to pull firefighters into a defensive posture, according to an interview Day gave to WCIV News.
"We were there for about 90 minutes, and we're told that we could take our air packs off. Because of that, we went into a defensive posture, meaning nobody can go in or out of the building because it's no longer safe for anyone to be in it," Day told WCIV.
It was then that a woman came home to find fire raging through the three-story house and ran inside to try and save her cat.
"We did have one occupant break through the fire line and head back into the structure," Interim Chief John Tippett said during a July press conference.
Day, who had removed his air pack and had even unbuttoned his turnout jacket, immediately rushed back inside after the woman.
"She went up to the third floor in the house, so I immediately, as soon as I saw her, I ran up the steps," he said.
Day added that if he had waited, the woman likely would have died.
"The standard's two minutes to put all that gear on. Two minutes she didn't have. Two minutes. When I found her, she was crouched over and 20 feet in. A few more seconds and she would have been passed out on the floor, then would have ultimately burned up and died," Day said.
Day was able to remove her from the structure and both were taken to the hospital, but in the aftermath he says he felt slighted by how the chief handled the situation. Day claims he was thanked for his effort by the chief in a "sarcastic" and "disrespectful" way -- more of a reprimand than a congratulations.
"He wasn't happy with what I did and told me I was going to have to write him an essay."
The city says as a part of the department's safety practices, the chief asked Day to demonstrate his understanding of the risk he put himself in by writing a short essay.
"You risk a lot to save a lot. You save a life if you can. That's ingrained in the fire service. So, I told him that, and he said we don't risk what-so-ever at this fire department. 'If you would have died in there, that would have been a black eye for the fire department,'” Day said.
The firefighter says he does not agree with that and chose to resign his post.
"I believe that we should save the citizens whenever we have the possibility and if it's there. Just the way he portrayed it to me, is if it's not safe, don't do it. Well there's nothing safe about being a fireman," Day said.
The city has expressed its gratitude to Day for his service and wishes him the best in the future.
