Photo By Dan DiPietro | Senior Airman Garrett Shepler poses for a photo at the 158th Fighter Wing in South...... read more read more
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WINOOSKI, Vt. - Around 3:30 pm, Senior Airman Garrett Shepler, a weapons loader with the Maintenance Group at the 158th Fighter Wing, was driving back to his home in Plattsburgh, N.Y., when he happened to come upon a structure fire on Main Street in Winooski.
“I remember sitting there in traffic, and all of a sudden I just looked over, and I saw these two guys standing outside their door, they were looking back inside the building and looked panicked.”
Shepler then said he turned on the blue light bar he has on his Durango because he is a volunteer firefighter in Cumberland Head Fire Department, in New York.
He made his way through traffic and pulled up on a scene that he describes as a full-blown structure fire.
“There were no flames showing, just pitch-black smoke,” he said, “barreling in circles out of the door.”
Shepler went to go in the building to make sure that no one was left inside, and he said the smoke hit him in the face and that it burned to breathe it in.
“I went to run in, then the smoke hit me and I wasn’t thinking, so I was taking off my fleece and my blouse while yelling to the two men standing outside, ‘who else is in there?’ When they said, ‘no one,’ I was relieved.”
Shepler took control of the scene at that point and what he describes as a very, hot fire at Pecor Auto.
He asked what the men knew about the fire. He said one of the men was really upset and was saying, ‘That’s my shop.’
He told Shepler there were accelerants, such as, propane, gasoline, oil, and a vehicle still inside the garage, and knowing this information, Shepler worried that there could be an explosion.
The owner wanted to move his truck and would have had to go back into the burning building to get the keys. Shepler kept him from going back into the building telling the owner that he would not make it back out.
“One thing that could have changed the whole situation, was the owner wanted to open the garage doors. I had to explain to him that you could create a back draft by increasing the supply of oxygen to the quickly developing fire.”
The doors were spring doors, so if the garage were opened too quickly, Shepler feared that they could make the situation worse.
Realizing that the developing situation could become hazardous to bystanders and neighbors, Shepler moved his vehicle to the street to block off the driveway when two Winooski Police Department cars showed up. The police began shutting down the street, while Shepler was doing a walk around the building to assess the situation further.
Once the Winooski fire chief got on scene, Shepler briefed him on what his assessment was explaining that he was a fireman from New York state and offered the chief help if he needed it.
“The chief said, yes, we’re gonna need you,” Shepler recalled, and he jumped into action, letting out lines, directing the first firefighters on scene with what he knew, and the situation progressed, he helped where ever he could.
He took out windows for ventilation, started saws, and even helped some of his fellow firefighters with making sure their equipment was on and working properly.
Shepler says that his instincts as a fireman took over and he just wanted to make sure that everyone else got out and, today, he said he is thankful that no one was injured.
Shepler had a heroing story to tell his family and friends when he got home, about what he describes, “as just another day at work.”
| Date Taken: | 02.13.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 02.13.2014 18:36 |
| Story ID: | 120606 |
| Location: | WINOOSKI, VT, US |
| Hometown: | PLATTSBURGH, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 1,690 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Vt. Guardsman first on scene in Winooski fire, by Maj. Dyana Allen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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