I’m a believer you can’t understand someone’s reaction until you’re put into that same situation. I wanted to know what Juan Galan might have been thinking as he rushed into a burning car.
Last weekend, he rescued a mother and her child after a car crash. So, I put myself in similar shoes. What might you be thinking when a life is on the line? How hard is it to see, to breath?
With the help of Corpus Christi Fire Department, we simulated a burning building by filling it with artificial smoke. Now, sugar water is used to simulate the smoke. The illusion helps make the scenario as real as is safely possible.
I strapped on all the firefighter equipment with the an air tank backpack. One firefighter said its roughly an extra 80 lbs they wear.
CCFD taught me to feel my way around in a room you can't see anything. The artificial smoke was still very hard to see through. It's human nature to be scared by what you can't see and don't know. Heart starts racing. You have to focus even harder.
For firefighters, they at least have all the protective gear where Galan didn't. Just standing in the gear for awhile started taking a toll with how heavy it was.
"Takes a lot to jump into action like that," Cpt. Adam Guerra said. "This isn’t something everybody decides that they’re going to risk themselves. We have, as firefighters, all this equipment that helps protect us when we take those actions. And makes it a little bit easier or a lot easier to get in there and do that kind of work. So, to do it without that says a lot about him.
