An off-duty Pennsylvania firefighter helped save a 12-year-old girl who was trapped inside a burning house Monday.
Elijah Hale, a volunteer firefighter with the Irishtown Fire Company in New Oxford and Alpha Fire Company in Littlestown, was out driving when he came across a two-story house on fire in Mount Pleasant Township, the Evening Sun reports. He then spotted a girl on the second floor and quickly went to help.
As the girl climbed through a window onto the top of the porch, Hale grabbed a ladder from a nearby barn and used it to rescue the girl.
"I believe she found a guitar and used that to break the storm window out," Hale, who has been a volunteer firefighter since he was 14, told WGAL-TV. "If she didn't do that, the longer she was exposed to that smoke, the worse off it would have been for her."
The girl was taken to the hospital with injuries that weren't considered life-threatening. Hale didn't stay at the scene long after firefighters arrived.
"To be quite honest, as soon as I got her out, EMS arrived," he told WGAL. "I made sure she was in their care, and I left."
His heroic efforts didn't go unnoticed, though.
"Our company is proud of his quick thinking, and willingness to take action without the benefit of PPE or other fire personnel on scene," the Irishtown Fire Company wrote in an online update. "His quick action undoubtedly saved a life."
