CHILLUM, MD – The two firefighters who first raced up a four-story ladder to rescue an older couple had to carry them down the first several steps of the ladder, even as flames licked at the apartment building behind them, they told reporters on Thursday.
Tommy Rhodes, a 26-year veteran firefighter, and Miguel Ocasio Jr, with just two years on the force, were the first two firefighters up the ladder at Wednesday night’s two-alarm fire at an Adelphi apartment and condo building. There, they helped Samuel David Kate and his wife four stories down to the ground, safely.
Kate said he and his wife, who was preparing Thursday for a trip back to her native India, threw luggage off their balcony before firefighters arrived, and after being helped onto the ladder, inched their way down with the help of firefighters. They lived next door to the apartment where the fire is thought to have sparked and were trapped by flames and smoke.
“I was so thankful to hear and I told him thank America,” Kate told WUSA9 in an exclusive interview on Thursday. “The people here who do the job are so wonderful.”
Those people – Prince George’s (and Montgomery County) firefighters – held a news conference on Thursday to discuss the difficult technical rescue.
“I didn’t even see, really, the fire at that point. My moment was just those people, making sure they’re going to be safe. And I didn’t want anything to happen to them,” Rhodes recalled. “They were throwing, like, furniture and luggage off the balcony.”
Ocasio had never taken part in a rescue like this one, he told reporters, adding that he was thankful to have had a more senior firefighter to follow and learn from.
“It was different,” Ocasio said, comparing the real-life adrenaline to his experiences in training. “Very different and exciting, but at the same time it was serious. We had a job to do.
Five people, including three firefighters, were injured in the blaze. The three firefighters were all released from the hospital Wednesday night, Chief Marc Bashoor told reporters. The two civilians remain hospitalized.
Several dozen people also remain displaced from the burned building, at 9205 New Hampshire Avenue in Adelphi. The Red Cross is helping them find temporary living arrangements.
