Saving the World- Airman helps save lives of three families caught in fire
The Air Force Times reports Tech Sgt. Michael Cleary, while home on leave, rushed into multiple burning buildings to awaken residents and usher them out of danger.
While visiting his hometown of Manteca, California, on July 14, he smelled smoke and noticed ash drifting through the air. Shortly afterward, he saw flames coming over some houses, according to an Air Force press release.
The blaze was spreading through the entire neighborhood, engulfing trees and cars. Recognizing the danger to the residential area, he jumped from his vehicle and ran to the scene of the fire.
“My first thought was to see if anyone needed help, so I ran up to the first house. where the tenants were still inside sleeping, woke them up and helped them exit,” Cleary said in the release.
The fire was spreading rapidly, though, and Cleary saw two other homes nearby that were in immediate danger, so he ran to alert those residents as well.
Carin Rhodes, a tenant of one of the properties, heard Cleary shouting just outside, “Hey! Hey! There’s a fire in your backyard!”
“I rushed to a window where I could see that there were three Modesto ash trees on fire,” Rhodes said. “I could feel the searing heat through the window. As I ran to the front door, I could still hear the yelling man alerting my neighbors. I watched this man go from house to house alerting the neighborhood without hesitation. All the while, I was completely amazed at how quickly he reacted to everything and how fluid he was.”
After alerting the neighborhood, Cleary grabbed a water hose and began trying to prevent the spread of flames before the local fire department arrived.
The Air Force said he risked his physical safety and health by exposing himself to the flames and smoke.
“I had a cough for the next two days, but it was all worth it knowing that I played a small part in preventing three families from possibly losing their homes,” Cleary said.
With a half-hour, Cleary and the Manteca Fire Department had not only cleared the residents from the three burning homes but also extinguished the flames.
Cleary credited his Air Force training for helping him respond quickly.
As an aircraft maintenance professional, Cleary is routinely trained in fire safety, especially in fire prevention and how to slow or stop the spread of aircraft-related blazes when they occur.
“That training helped me remain calm throughout the situation,” Cleary said. “The whole process felt instinctual; [I needed] to prevent the spread of fire the best I could.”
Bravo Zulu, Tech Sgt. Michael Cleary, damn well done.
Category: Air Force
Great job Airman.
But that is a weird picture.
He looks like he went straight from the fire into a photo galllary to get his portrait taken.
He’s on a set. There’s a shadow behind him that says it’s posed, and he’s too close to the backdrop for it to be anything but a posed photo.
He likes the personal pronoun I very much. Give him a medal and tell him to STFU. He knocked on a door and grabbed a garden hose. Big f/n deal. Oh, and he had a cough for two whole days. Gotta be another medal in the box for that. Cripes.
I’ve had some long days and nights on the fireline over the past week, including some structure protection. Sucked an assload of smoke doing it, too. Even managed (with the rest of our Charlie strike team) to keep that whole neighborhood from losing a single house, though we got our ass kicked doing it. What do I get?
The satisfaction of saving lives and property, w/o fanfare and a PR pic that shows a face with make-up all over it. (Hell, I can see the two finger-application marks in the studio photo.)
And the overtime check.
Yeah, I actually had to put my goggles down that day. Last time I took smoke that bad on a veg fire was when I was 20. Haven’t needed to wear my damn goggles in 14 years since…maybe I’m just turning into a pussy as I get old. My face was dirty as hell, and I didn’t look like that.
^this^ Not to take away from his actions, but how much of the linked article was his tooting of horn and how much was the AF Times writer? Got a nephew in South Dakota 1st Responder EMT and a Wild Fire Warrior. Have seen him come straight back from some bad ones (fires) not looking made up or playing the hero. He and the other boys & girls have been deployed back and forth from Cali back thru the Rockies all summer.
“PR pic”
Where’s the baby in charred clothing?
I’d have to agree on the makeup job. I’ve seen Chicago firefighters after striking a bad fire, like the furniture warehouse a few years ago, and they didn’t look like that.
It’s good of him to try to get people up and out of their houses to safety, but the rest of it is kind of ‘look at me’.
I looked that dirty after some shifts in the steel mill. I shoulda stayed in the open hearth. Woulda made it to first helper.
You didn’t take a killer staged photo that makes you look like you strangled Cerberus with your bare hands, kicked down the gates and put out the fires of hell with a squirt gun.
Props for the Airman in doing the right thing and potentially saving lives but he ran from house to house knocking on doors when trees in the backyard were on fire isn’t quite the same as storming up 3 flights of stairs and tossing kids out of a window.
When I was a member of ERFD, Hose 1, we had a vollie who moved from out east in Suffolk CTY LI, NY into our East Rockaway Nassau CTY LI village and told us that fighting one brush/pine tree job was like fighting a couple of house fires in a row. Got to hand it to those wildland Fire Fighters for the work they do. Stay safe Brother OTW.
I volunteered on a couple of fires in AZ. It’s sucky and major hard work for sure but I’d much rather do that than fight a house fire if I was one of the guys going in. Standing outside, yeah, I’ll agree with him but I’ve never fought a house fire. However, house fires don’t look even close to as physically demanding as cutting trees or digging a fireline for days on end.
Well done Airman. Keeping the ‘Chair’ out of the Air Force.