BOSTON, Mass.-- Rarely do we see the dangers firefighters face every day. These men and women risk their lives to keep others safe every day.
WBZ photographer Chuck Manning captured a dramatic rescue at a burning house in Mattapan Monday morning. A triple-decker on Blue Hill Avenue burst into flames. Engine 16 rushed to the scene to help fight the fire and rescue those who were trapped inside.
Later that night, the firemen who were at the scene spoke with to WBZ's Jonathan Elias about what happened.
When firefighters got to the fire in Mattapan, they knew they had their hands full. They had to rescue children and then firefighters.
Gathering around the TV, the firefighters with Engine 16 watched video of the fight some of them had waged just hours earlier.
Lt. Michael Sameski was one of the first to arrive at the scene. "When you come up like that and you have people pointing and yelling, it's just life safety you're thinking somebody is there, and you got to get the people out" Sameski said.
Sameski ran to the back of the burning house and saw a girl screaming from the second story. He grabbed a painter's ladder, put it up against the building and crawled up to her. "And I just told the girl to stay... the smoke was coming out the window bad... she was screaming... she was hysterical, but I told her to stay, that there would be a ladder. That was her best option at that point. She was breathing relatively good air for the most part."
Sameski was able to get the little girl out and carry her to an ambulance that was waiting on the street below. He then ran back to the house to rescue a 2-year-old, but someone had already pulled the toddler from the fire.
Meanwhile, up on the roof, firefighters were working with axes trying to vent the fire -- working to direct the blaze away from those inside the house. The venting was a success, but the fire quickly turned on them. "Yeah, the fire was coming close to us and it made it more urgent to get off the roof," said firefighter Jay Gormley, who was one of the five firefighters on the building's roof.
A truck's ladder was ferrying the men from the burning roof to the roof next door. At one point the fire got so close to the men that one firefighter had to jump off the roof and onto the ladder before the blaze got him. "We weren't expecting (the fire) to cut across our exit," said Gormley. "When we saw that happen, we asked for our buddies down below to move the ladder... They moved it for us... We moved to the adjacent roof... It turned out all right for us."
Some firefighters suffered minor burns from the fire, but none of them were seriously injured. They told WBZ they were very concerned about the 2-year-old who was pulled out of the burning house.
They were relieved to hear the toddler's condition was upgraded Monday night.
Republished with permission of WBZ-TV.
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