Monday night a Rochester firefighter ran out of air and was in danger of collapsing inside a burning home. Tuesday night he was back on the job. Jeff Simpson says he feels fine and was anxious to get back to work tonight.
"My viber alert was going off and then it stopped," Simpson said.
It's something Jeff Simpson has never experienced, leaning outside a window, gasping for air.
"And my face piece started sucking to my face as I took a breath I could only take about half breaths," he said.
In his years of fire fighting, his air tank has never run out.
"At that time I told my boss, I needed to exit the building I needed to get out cause I was low on air it was hard to breathe."
Fire fighters were searching the North Clinton Avenue home for people, possibly trapped. No one was in the house, but in the search, Simpson had busted out a window.
"I found a window, cleared the window out, as I looked out the window, there was a ladder there," Simpson said.
Simpson never thought that ladder would be how he got out of the house.
"I thought I was going to come out the same way I came in," he said.
When Simpson's air tank stopped vibrating, he felt the push of air in his air mask.
"I thought I had a lot more time lot more time," Simpson said. "It was only a minute to two minutes tops that the viber alert went off, I knew I had to get out."
Simpson came into work just like any other day, getting his gear together and talking with his co-workers. He said he's just lucky he had guys on the outside to help him out.
"Our lives depend on them and vice versa," Simpson said. "We're always there for each other no matter what."
Officials are looking at whether there was a malfunction with the air tank. They say right now, they just don't know why the tank lost air so quickly.
Republished with permission of WHEC-TV.
