If you wake up in the middle of the night and your house is on fire, don't get dressed, run for your life. Every second counts. I'm being DEAD serious.
I used to get asked, "ever pull anybody out of a burning building?" I would reply, "dead or alive?". They didn't care but "alive" makes for a better story. Unfortunately my guy died. Male, about 40, living alone. Woke up in the middle of the night to find his house on fire. He made the mistake of trying to get dressed. He stood up to put his pants on and took one breath of the poisonous, super heated gasses and went down. I found him with one leg in his pants.
You know the movies where they show the fire fighters sling a victim over his shoulders and rush him to safety? If I had done that not only would dude be dead but so would I. Firefighters live on the floor. I was crawling when I felt him, grabbed him by both ankles and unceremoniously dragged him out of the room and down a short flight of steps to safety, his head clunking on each stair as we descended. We were met by a slew of medical professionals and whisked away in an ambulance. Found out later he didn't make it. Does it bother me? No, I did my search perfectly. Some things you don't do half ass-ed.
Then there were those that you found after the fire. I'll keep those to myself.
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It was maybe 12 years ago when my neighors wife came knocking on our door. She and her husband had just had a new baby, he was an alcoholic and they were not getting along very well. She tells me she thinks he is dead, so I go to see if I can help somehow. I get over there and the garage door is open maybe 8 inches with his feet sticking out. His car is in the garage and still running. So I grab his feet and drag him out from under the door while his wife calls 911. I still wonder why she waited so ong to do that. Anyways, the EMT's get there and hook him up to oxygen. He lived. they divorced. I haven't seen him since.
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