A Texas volunteer firefighter was burned while rescuing a down comrade from a raging wildfire on April 15, according to WFAA-TV.
Firefighter Matt Clark is still processing what happened and told the new station that he was just doing his job.
"I don't feel like I'm a hero," he said from his bed at the Parkland Memorial Hospital burn unit in Dallas. "I did what any fireman would do."
The full-time corrections officer has only been volunteering for six months, but has already found himself in a situation that few ever do.
He responded to the brush fire near his home in Gorman with his chief and they suddenly found themselves surrounded.
As they tried to outrun the fire, their fire truck was overrun by the flames.
Clark sustained first-degree burns to his face and third-degree burns to his hands.
"It was very scary," he told the news station. "I’m not going to lie to you; I honestly did not think I would make it home."
At that point, one of his fellow firefighter collapsed.
He said that the burns weren't bothering him and that his main thought was that "I've got to get out of here, and I got to take whoever I can with me."
Clark's recovery is currently a struggle. He was expected to go home yesterday, but the wounds are deeper than first thought and he has been kept at the hospital because they are infected.
He will be hospitalized for at least another week and has skin graft surgery scheduled for Wednesday.
