For John McMaster, Jan. 24, 2022 will forever be ingrained in his mind.
He donned his turnout gear and responded to a house fire on Stricker Street with fellow Baltimore firefighters.
What would make this call different than any other in his career — he and three other firefighters became trapped under debris during a collapse. He was the only one who survived.
“Kelsey was to my right; Kenny was in front of me. Something came down and hit me in the back of the head, and it was a very hard hit through my helmet, and the next thing I know it started crumbling down on us, trapping us,” he told a WBFF reporter.
“There was too much weight, too much lumber on us. We were trapped. I was calling out my company, ‘Engine 14, Engine 14.”
“I reached out and was able to find Kenny’s hand. It was pitch black on fire and smoky. I tried to reassure Kenny we were going to be okay. I said ‘Brother, we’re going to be fine,’” he said. “They’re going to get us out of here, but you’ve got to open this pipe because we’re burning up right now. He did that.”
As he called Mayday and yelled louder for help, his air was running low.
“What I tried to remember was pictures of my family and friends. I tried to imagine them,” he said adding that he didn’t think he’d ever see them again.
“Eventually, I feel tugging on my pack, pulling me back.”
He was rushed to R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center for treatment of multiple serious injuries that would end his career.
It would be days before he learned that his fellow firefighters — Lt. Paul Butrim and Firefighters Kelsey Sadler and Kenny Lacayo — weren’t going home to their families.
“I was awake and had a tube in my throat, and when the nurses would come up, I’d get a pen and a piece of paper, and I kept writing ’14’ with a question mark. You’re left knowing they weren’t able to get everybody out, and you feel bad, possibly guilty, because they were all such great people.”
McMaster is angry and frustrated about the deaths of his colleagues calling it preventable. And he’s on a mission to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“We didn’t know the house was vacant. We didn’t know there was prior fires at this house. We didn’t know there was prior collapses at this house.”
“I’m sad 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I have better moments when I’m with my brothers and sisters, but you always know you lost three of your brothers and sisters in a preventable fire, and that makes me sad also. It makes me angry, but it makes me sad that it seems like nothing is being done about this.”
As he continues on his path to recovery, he’s joined the families of the fallen firefighters filing notice of their plans to sue the city last December.
“We didn’t know the house was vacant. We didn’t know there was prior fires at this house. We didn’t know there was prior collapses at this house,” he said.
“I’m sad 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” he said. “I have better moments when I’m with my brothers and sisters, but you always know you lost three of your brothers and sisters in a preventable fire, and that makes me sad also. It makes me angry, but it makes me sad that it seems like nothing is being done about this.”
READ MORE – https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/firefighter-injured-in-stricker-street-fire-shares-exclusive-story-from-that-tragic-day