Firefighter Angie Roach said she never realized how compassionate people could be until she fell through a fire-weakened floor.
Roach, an eight-year veteran of Hall County Fire Services, spent more than five weeks at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital being treated for second- and third-degree burns in the worst firefighter injury in the department's history, sustained while responding to a house fire in Buford in early August.
She was released from the hospital and returned to her Cleveland home Tuesday, and still faces one to two years of recovery from a series of skin grafts. Roach, whose right arm remains wrapped in bandages, said she sustained serious burns to her midsection.
On Saturday, Roach and her husband, Alpharetta firefighter John Roach, dropped by a softball tournament fundraiser held for her benefit at Gainesville's Laurel Park. Old colleagues and total strangers greeted her warmly.
"It's unbelievable," Roach said of the outpouring of support. "I wish I could thank everyone personally. There are so many people that have done so many things for me. I am grateful."
Firefighters from Hall County, Atlanta and Alpharetta stood vigil outside her hospital room in the first weeks, helping her family with day-to-day needs. The cards and calls poured in.
Saturday's tournament and donations from Hall County's Fraternal Order of Eagles raised a few thousand dollars to supplement the Roach's household budget while she misses work.
Roach, a 31-year-old firefighter and paramedic, was the engine driver for Station No. 8 in South Hall when the house fire call came in on the afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 4.
She and two other firefighters went through the front door of a house on Chimney Springs Road where light smoke was showing. The foyer's plywood and laminate floor, weakened by a fire burning in a basement utility closet directly below, gave way under Roach. She fell 10 feet into the small room as the sudden rush of oxygen fed the flames. It took nearly eight minutes for firefighters, battling through smoke and flames, to rescue her from the blaze.
"I recall everything, but I try not to think about it," Roach said. "Being on that side of patient care was definitely different."
"They said I took over," she said. "I was telling them how to take care of me. But that's just the paramedic in me."
Roach said the homeowners, Scott and Stephanie Norton, were among the many who visited her in the hospital.
"They felt so bad it happened, but it's not their fault," she said. "It's just one of those things that was bound to happen."
Roach said her husband "has had the hardest part."
"I got burned and I was hurt really bad, but he's stood by my side through this entire thing," she said.
Now it seems everywhere they go, the couple is greeted by well-wishers.
"We were at Red Lobster the other night and someone bought our dinner," she said. "I didn't even know who did it."
Roach said her injury was "one of the worst things that's ever happened to me, but yet it's one of the best things that ever happened to me."
"I've learned more about human nature, the power of prayer ... it's given me a new belief in people. There's a lot of good people in this world."
While she has a long road of recovery ahead, Roach said she is further along than her doctors expected. A caregiver is helping her at home during the day.
"I'm still sore and I hurt, but every day's getting better," she said. "It's going to be a lot of work, but you can see all the support I have from all my friends in the fire department."
For Roach, returning home was a relief, and seeing her children, ages 11 months and 5 years, was a joy.
"That's my life, my kids and my family," she said. "I can't do much right now, but having a house full of people, it just felt like everything was complete. Even though I'm not 100 percent, it's getting that way."
