Hero

[Lefty]

SANFORD, Fla. -- An off-duty firefighter who lives in the Central Florida neighborhood where a Cessna plane crashed into two homes and exploded jumped into action, rushing into the burning structures without fire protection to pull victims to safety.

He went straight into the first burning house and pulled out a father and son, a fire official told WKMG-TV in Orlando.

Lake Mary firefighter Ryan Cooper, 30, who lives next door to one of two homes hit by a plane at the Preserve at Lake Monroe subdivision in Sanford, was coming home from his duty and witnessed the plane crash.

The fire official said Cooper pulled the pair out of the flames and then went back into the second house but did not find anyone inside.

Cooper, who is also a paramedic, then worked with firefighters to stabilize the burn victims and then collapsed.

"What can I say, he is a hero," Fire Chief Craig Haun said. "At this point he is more concerned with the other actions, the could haves. What if he could have done a little more or something like that. Everybody knows what he did and the heroic actions that he took."

Cooper was transported to Central Florida suffering from smoke inhalation and other injuries.

Cooper's injuries were not life-threatening, officials said.

Source: http://www.local6.com/news/ July 10, 2007

I thought that was an inspiring story, for a change. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Cherry_pez]

Yeah that was right down the way from my sister's place. I wonder if it was near my step-sister's house.

[Lefty]

Do you know the hero-guy?

[Cherry_pez]

Yeah. We went to high school together. Cool guy. Nah, just kidding.

[cherrysis]

I saw that on the news last night and of course thought of Sammie Jr.!!!

[Lefty]

I guess it's a silly question. Like when I tell people I'm from the Netherlands, they often go, "Oh say, do you know (...)"