Off-duty Milwaukee firefighters pull mom, child from burning car

Wow. Two off-duty Milwaukee firefighters – brothers – pulled a mom and her kid from a burning car. The Journal Sentinel reports:

“She was screaming, ‘My baby’s still in there! My child’s still in there!” John said.

Joel said, “We saw this child burning in front of us, screaming. It’s a no-brainer. Your training just kicks in. At no time did I feel I was truly in danger. I knew the risks involved.”

They are quick, though, to give credit to others at the scene, calling it a group effort.

“You see people bashing on the windows. Without that we couldn’t have gotten in on time,” said Joel, who has been with the MFD for 10 years. “An off-duty police officer (Lt. Mark Wroblewski) had fire extinguishers. That gave us an extra five, 10 seconds, which proved to be the lifesaving five seconds. A lady stretched out a hose across Layton Avenue. As soon as we pulled him out, we were able to cool him off. That prevented the burns from being worse.”

“The off-duty firefighters, the off-duty police officers, these citizens of the city, they did an outstanding job,” said Wroblewski, who suffered minor injuries. “They showed the true spirit of the city by coming together to save this child’s life.”

…The boy suffered burns to at least 30% of his body and underwent surgery Sunday night at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, according to police officials. His condition was listed as critical but stable Monday morning, police said.

The Rechlitz brothers, who hope to visit the boy Monday, say they are doing well. Joel has second- and third-degree burns to his right arm. Because he was wearing shorts, he also had several cuts and small burns. He said there are also dime-size blisters on his left hand. John sustained second-degree burns to both of his hands.

It’s 2009, so naturally somebody had a camera. The raw footage is already up on YouTube – it’s dramatic, but not gruesome:

Watch the local news coverage here.

You always hope you’ll do the right thing and act the right way in this kind of situation, and then you hope you never get a chance to prove it.