I'll be right up front here, I'm bragging, and proud of it.
At 0005 hours on December 18, 1989 I responded to a really bad apartment fire.
Upon our arrival we were met with a horrific, 16 unit, 2 story "through the roof" fire, with the report of a baby trapped inside.
The short story is that I located a 9 year old girl and removed her form the building. Her blond hair was matted black and she was covered in soot. When we got her to the ambulance she had no vital signs, and it was very depressing.
The medics did a great job and revived her and quickly whisked her away.
"Kat" spent 5 days in ICU and on Christmas Eve we spent the day with Kat & her family at home.
She has been like our daughter ever since, and her dad like my brother.
In this picture, evacuation orders have already been given and many of the fire fighters are exiting the building.
You can see the entire 2nd floor is just about burned away and there are 2 firefighters exiting the 2nd floor balcony.
And this is only 10 minutes into the fire!
You can't see in the picture but I was in the process of exiting the 2nd floor window onto a ladder with my "package"