MASON, Ohio -- Lt. Mark Gerano knows how lucky he is to be alive.
And his one simple, routine action made the difference.
When he climbed into the engine for a call last week -- and pulled his seat belt across him -- little did he know that the strap would play such an important role moments later.
"We were going to a routine call. When we turned left onto another road, my weight shifted and the door flew open," he explained.
Gerano was on the way out. His feet were in the air. But he was held back by the seat belt.
"It all happened so quickly. I would have had no time to react," he said. "The belt saved me from landing in the street. I would have been injured or worse ..."
Gerano said the driver was shaken by the incident. "Both of us were ..."
"We all signed the seat belt pledge a while ago," he said, adding that it's also included in both department and city policies.
"We're very safety conscious here. When I get in the truck, I always make sure everyone is buckled up."
Chief John Moore said the door latch was inspected after the incident, but nothing was detected.
"I'm really glad he was wearing his seat belt. He was on his way out of the truck when it stopped him," the chief said. "It certainly made him a believer!"
Moore said all 52 full- and part-time firefighters have signed the National Seat Belt Pledge.
Sign the Seat Belt Pledge: PDF & Doc
Gerano said he was saddened to hear about Phoenix Captain Crystal Rezzonico, who was critically injured when she was ejected from a fire truck during a crash last week.
That wreck, which occurred the day before his incident, made him realize just how fortunate he was.
