CAMP HANSEN, Okinawa, Japan — U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Marshall Martinez rushed to the aid of occupants inside a burning hotel in Chatan, Okinawa, Japan, during the early morning hours of Aug. 15, 2026.
Martinez, a native of California and a combat engineer with III Marine Expeditionary Force Support Battalion, III MEF Information Group, was walking home after an evening out with his girlfriend when they noticed a building on fire.
With the building already on fire, Martinez entered the structure and began waking occupants, urging them to evacuate.
“My initial thought was, it’s early in the morning, there are probably people sleeping,” said Martinez. “If I had my family in there, I would want someone to wake me up to get them out of the fire.”
After helping alert the occupants, Martinez and his girlfriend moved to a safe distance and contacted Japanese and U.S. emergency services.
Believing everyone had made it out, they continued to wait for emergency responders to arrive. Then, Martinez and other bystanders noticed a flashing light coming from an area of the building.
Someone was still inside.
Martinez returned to the building and, with the help of others, grabbed a fire extinguisher and attempted to suppress the flames. When that proved unsuccessful, they broke a window in an attempt to reach the remaining occupant, who was unconscious.
By then, the building’s entrance was engulfed in flames, and the heat and smoke surrounding the window made continuing through that route increasingly dangerous.
“If I stay in here, I’m going to pass out and become a casualty too,” said Martinez, recalling the conditions around the window.
Rather than continue through an unsafe point of entry, Martinez began looking for another way to reach the trapped occupant — a thought process familiar to him as a combat engineer.
Combat engineers are trained to conduct breaching operations and identify alternate points of entry when their primary route is inaccessible. Martinez said that training helped guide his decisions as conditions around the building continued to deteriorate.
“I can’t go through the door to get the person,” said Martinez. “Let’s try the window, and then, okay, the window is not working. Let’s try the wall.”
Martinez and the others assisting him began prying open the side of the building with a wooden pry bar. Drawing from his experience and training, including an urban breachers course, Martinez recognized that the direction they were attempting to pry the structure open would not work and stepped in to redirect their efforts.
The wooden bar eventually snapped, but Martinez continued working with his hands until they were able to open the side of the structure.
Emergency responders arrived as Martinez and the others breached the side of the building. Fire department personnel then entered the structure and removed the final occupant. Martinez said he watched as they removed the individual from the building.
For Martinez, his actions that morning reflected both his training and a simple belief that standing by was not an option.
“We need to do something. We can’t just stand there and watch,” said Martinez.
Looking back on the incident, Martinez said he was grateful he and the others were there when the fire began.
“It could have been much worse if we weren’t in the area to wake people up,” said Martinez. “They could have just been asleep.”
When asked what message he would give to other Marines faced with a similar situation, Martinez kept it simple.
“Don’t be a bystander,” said Martinez. “Jump toward action.”