thank you. master sergeant scott ford. [applause] thank you, scott. and louis morales. thank you, louis. [applause] carl warsbach. thank you, carl. [applause] sergeants first class seth howard, dave sanders, john walden, dillon behr and ryan wallen. thank you, fellows. [applause] thank you, fellows. very importantly, as you know, better than anyone, afghan translators beruse mold and zia grofori. how was that? okay? not bad. he said it was okay. [applause]
i just wanted to save myself. i wanted to do everything possible to hold on but i couldn t physically do it. go this way. go this way. go this way. january 2010. a two-story home in the town of randolph, new jersey is on fire and it s a life or death call. when they called us, they told us it was a house fire with people possibly trapped in the structure. alan bell, jr. is an 11-year veteran of the dover volunteer fire department. his colleague, louis morales with the randolph fire department is also on the scene. we saw a lot of smoke coming from the first floor and lot of smoke coming from the second floor, in the front of the house. morales learns a woman is trapped on the second floor. he and his team quickly assess the situation. when i arrived, i just saw the randolph fire department on scene establishing water supply and trying to get into the building to be able to make a rescue of the victim that was reportedly trapped.
i was knocked unconscious, had a head concussion. morales is lucky. sadly, the fire claims the life of the woman trapped inside. she tried to come out of the room and she obviously couldn t make it because the fire and the smoke caught up to her. it s not until alan bell is able to catch his breath that he remembers he s wearing a camera on his helmet. once you settle down and all your adrenaline s over, then is when i realized i think i was filming all this. the first time i watched it, it was scary, you know, because you see yourself going through this. this is not a good experience. come on down head first! both firefighters hope others can learn from the video captured by alan bell s helmet camera. my primary goal of the video was to use for training. and that we all should train for the highest level possible. you can see what happens. it s all on camera. mayday. firefighter down. coming up, h2 whoa! all of a sudden i just feel
they have better access to the trapped woman. i was just thinking of getting this lady out. the first priority was to get this person out and get her to safety. she s on the second floor. she was in this window right here. if we can get this up to the roof. morales makes his way inside. a lot of smoke, very black, dark smoke. we could see some flames seeping through the first floor going into the second floor. the room got bright real quick and started getting really, really hot. i ve been in prior fires, and i have never experienced the type of heat i experienced that day. meanwhile, outside at the back of the house, alan bell is assisting other firefighters. we were making entry and climbing up on the roof, and there was a ladder extended there. but suddenly, louis morales
shortly after arriving, alan bell pulls out a brand new gadget, a helmet camera, giving a rare glimpse of what firefighting is like up close. i got it for christmas of 2009 so probably about six weeks before this fire. that was the first time i actually used the camera. because of a change in regulations, it s the first and only time bell will use his camera on scene. he turns it on and goes about his job for the day. we are initially what they called a rapid intervention team to extract firefighters if they get lost or hurt or injured. morales is part of another team, one that will enter the burning home. we started to go into the front of the house. we noticed that there was all the entrances were blocked in. the firefighters then moved to the back of the house, hoping