Being a firefighter takes a lot of guts and passion for the job. Remember that you will be fighting with fire and that is something that not a lot of people can do as a career. Every time you are in a life and death situation, saving a life is your number one priority. And sometimes, this is how some of our heroic firefighters lost their lives.

Fire Truck 16 was dispatched for a fire emergency in Atlanta on June 27, 2019. It was for an early morning assignment of a primary search of the first floor of a residential house. A fire started in Sallie Skrine’s house. She is a 95-year-old woman who lived in the northwest Atlanta neighborhood of Collier Heights. According to the WAGA officials, one of the burners of her stove had been left on and had probably started the fire.

While the firefighter crew was still preparing on how to carry out this search, one of their crew members, Daniel Dwyer, immediately jumped into action. He arrived at the scene at around 1 AM. He saw that the flames were quickly taking over the wooden-frame house and a team of firefighters was already trying to fight the blaze with water but the woman was still in the dining room. He knew that he had to make a split-second decision.

The other firefighters on his search team were still rushing to the scene but he saw that the flames were only getting stronger. The house had burglar bars installed on the windows and the woman have been trying to escape while Dwyer broke down the front door and pulled out a 95-year-old woman who out. But because of the severity of her injuries, she did not survive.

Eight months after this incident, Dwyer’s actions were ruled out to be inappropriate. Because of this, he was suspended from his job. And according to the local television reports, he was suspended without pay. All of this was because the fire captain did not follow the protocol when he barged into the house by himself.

Atlanta Fire Chief Randall B. Slaughter said, “Firefighting is an extremely dangerous job.” And even though Dwyer rushed into the blaze on his own and seemed like a ‘courageous and commendable’ move, he still jeopardized the life of the other firefighters if they get trapped.

A notice of the final action states that Dwyer will be suspended without pay for four days. The document says: “You entered the structure without your crew members, which is in immediate conflict with no freelancing, accountability, and maintaining crew integrity.”

Slaughter denied commenting on the disciplinary case of Daniel Dwyer. He only noted that it “would be inappropriate to publicly discuss” a situation that has “not been totally resolved.” Local media reports that Dwyer can appeal his decision but it can take years to process.

However, this disciplinary action for Dwyer angered many firefighters. Most of them questioned why Dwyer is being punished instead of praised for his act of heroism. A video provided by the local news outlet shows how Dwyer braved the blazing fire and pulled the woman out of the house through her front door and onto her porch. His fellow firefighters then helped carry her down the steps and into safety.