An Alabama fire department is defending one of its own who has been criticized after video showed him donning his gear as a civilian rushes to rescue a woman from a burning apartment.
During a video shot at the scene of an apartment complex fire Wednesday in Mobile, a firefighter can be seen donning what appears to be his gloves, hood and SCBA as he prepares to rescue a woman from the window of a first-story apartment. Before he finishes suiting up, however, a neighbor standing near the firefighter, Quinn Parrish, quickly jumps into view and bravely pulls the woman through the open window and out of the unit.
"He was masking up, turning on his air bottle and searching for his regulator to go on air so that he could actually go in and get her out," Mobile Fire-Rescue spokesman Steven Millhouse told WPMI-TV.
Initially, the firefighter had been trying to save the woman but was having difficulty, Millhouse said, adding that the woman accidentally knocked off the firefighter's air mask. Millhouse said he was making adjustments to his PPE before rushing into the flames to continue the rescue.
The woman was taken to a hospital, but her condition was not known.
Following the rescue, Parrish credited his fast reaction to a previous incident he had witnessed.
"A little girl had died inside her apartment, and we did all we could to try to get her up out of there," he told WPMI. "All the smoke and stuff had killed us, and just, so any time I see a fire like that and I'm able to help, I jump right on it."
After the video was posted and shared online, comments cropped up that were critical of the firefighter, but Millhouse says that criticism is unfair.
"You're not in the situation with flames all around you and a life on the line," he told WPMI. "If you think you can do a better job, or you think you can do the job, we're absolutely accepting applications."
