“A lot of Guys Think This Won’t Happen To Them”

The quote “A lot of Guys Think This Won’t Happen To Them” was made by Houston Captain Abbt. Captain Abbt was trapped in a high rise fire for over 18 minutes after calling MAYDAY while attempting rescue of trapped victims.

I know that many of my readers have probably seen this video. If you haven’t, you have to watch it. All of it. If you have seen it, watch it again. Listen. Firefighters, Company Officers, Incident Commanders, Chiefs, all of you listen and watch and realize that Captain Abbt is right…”A lot of Guys Think This Won’t Happen To Them”.

This is as close a call as ever when rescuing viable victims. Most of us have signed up with the understanding that we MIGHT be put in a situation where our lives COULD be lost while trying to save another. That is who we are, that is what we are about. Don’t let the Safety Talk fool you, our jobs are dangerous. We have to be safe, but we also have to do what we have to do to get the job done. Captain Abbt’s life was spared, although the ones he was rescuing weren’t.

I don’t know about you, but my hair stands on end when I watch the end of this video.

Part one can be seen here. It includes the call for MAYDAY by Captain Abbt, Rescue and Suppresion efforts on the Exterior of the building and pertaining radio traffic. Part two is embedded below.