Training to save one of their own as well as themselves paid off for four Columbus firefighters during two recent incidents.
"The unknowns are every house is a little different, you’re walking into it with zero visibility,” Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Jeffrey Geitter told NBC4 Columbus.
Two firefighters were running out of air while stuck in the basement of a house fire last week, he said, adding that colleagues rescued them.
“Obviously everyone that does this job cares about the community, that is our primary focus. But when our teammates, when we hear they’re down, that’s just another extra little level of we’ve really got to figure out what’s going on here.”
“We do train on the rescue and mayday effort of our own extensively,” Geitter said.
The other incident happened Wednesday morning when two firefighters called 'Mayday' after they were caught briefly by debris.
“The stairwell and or some of the ceiling collapsed onto some of the members fighting the fire inside,” Geitter said adding that the two were able to self-rescue.
“The training definitely was proven to be excellent. There is a little luck involved obviously because there’s so many variables. However, you position yourself to be lucky by being prepared and going through all the training we do on a routine basis."
