ROSCOE BARNES III
Public Opinion

CHAMBERSBURG -- Norman Reitz heard the faint moan of a girl in trouble as he crawled along the second floor of a burning house.

Blinded by thick, black smoke, falling over furniture, the sound of the girl was all he had to follow in an attempt to reach her.

"Where are you?" he cried, struggling to project his voice while wearing a breathing apparatus. "Where are you?"

Again he heard the moan. It sounded to Reitz as though the girl was fading, and fading fast. He had to reach her before it was too late.

"Do it again," he yelled, as he tried to push his way to her location.

Reitz, 37, is assistant fire chief with the Chambersburg Fire Department. He was the first at the scene of a fire Monday at a two-story duplex at 270 and 272 Lincoln Way West.

He sat down Tuesday to talk about his experience.

People Trapped

Reitz learned about the fire about 3:45 p.m. while working at Johnnie's Restaurant and Hotel Services on U.S. 11. He works as an insulation manager, and has been with Johnnie's for 20 years.

Since Monday was Valentine's Day, he had dinner plans with his wife. It turned out they would have to be put on hold.

Reitz's pager went off and he dropped what he was doing and rushed to his emergency vehicle, a Dodge Durango. He hit the road with his emergency lights flashing and his siren blaring. Covering the 1.5 miles to the house seemed to take forever.

While driving down U.S. 11, he could see smoke billowing up from the building. Winds were gusting to 35 to 40 mph, and Reitz wanted to get there as fast as possible. In fire service, seconds mean everything.

Thirty seconds away, he learned that people were inside the house: "When I heard that people were trapped on the second floor, that stepped it up to a whole new level. My adrenalin was pumping. I needed to get there."

As he came near the house, he saw flames shooting out from the structure. He sped on to a street behind the house and found a parking lot nearby. He jumped out of the SUV to suit up with his gear when a middle-aged man appeared, talking on a cell phone.

"People are trapped inside," the man said, with a surprisingly calm demeanor.

"I know this," Reitz told him.

"I'm on the cell phone with them. What do I tell them?"

"Tell them to get to the window and get on the floor," Reitz told the man as he put on his gear.

"There are three people trapped inside," the man said.

Reitz placed his helmet on and grabbed his closet hook, a short pole used to tear down doors and walls, or break out windows. He then sprinted 40 yards to the house, breathing heavily as he pushed himself against the strong wind. He was racing against time.

"Which side?" he asked the man.

"The right side!"

Reitz saw the flames and the smoke. He made a quick assessment of the situation. He then threw his 220-pound frame unto the porch, and plowed through the back door.

Total Darkness

After entering the house, he stepped into a room filled with black, toxic smoke. Visibility was zero. He was in a stranger's house and could not see furniture or anything else in the room.

"I was running into things, and knocking things over," he recalled. "I could not see my hand in front of my face. I kept searching."

He checked his flashlight and tried to use it. It worked, but he still couldn't see.

"Eventually I found two steps with my hand."

He crawled up the steps and reached the second floor. He saw a window and broke it out to allow the smoke to escape.

He called for the people inside: "Hey, where are you?"

He kept searching as he bumped into walls. Then he heard a moan.

"Do it again," he said. "Do it again."

He began moving in the direction of the sound.

Based on the level of fire and smoke, Rietz knew time was short. He had to find the location of that sound. He went to his left into a room and began feeling around in the smoke. He felt what appeared to be a body.

"Got her!" he said. The victim was 14-year-old Carlita Neely.

Relieved to have found her, Reitz wondered how he could get her out. Going the way he came would take too long, he thought. So he took her to the front window of the bedroom.

Someone had broken the window from the outside. "Good," he thought. "I can get her out the front window."

He made it to the window, and called out for someone to get a ladder. But his voice was muffled by the breathing apparatus. He called out and waved, but no one could hear him.

He started frantically waving his hands, hoping someone would see him. No one responded. He felt for the girl, who was now unconscious. Running out of time, he grabbed his radio and called headquarters.

"Assistant chief one priority," he said. "I'm on the second floor. I have a victim. Need help!"

He picked up the girl to make another attempt to get out. He heard other firefighters coming in.

He recognized one of the voices as that of Steve Hines, assistant fire chief of Franklin Fire Company. He didn't recognize the other one.

"I got one!" Reitz said. "I got one! She's at my feet. We need to get her out!"

The girl, overcome by smoke, was limp. One firefighter grabbed her legs, and Reitz grabbed her arms. They found the steps leading to the first floor, and hustled her through the living room, the kitchen, and to the back yard.

"Take her to the grass!" Reitz said. He grabbed his radio: "Assistant chief 1 to command. Need ambulance and medics to side C immediately for a patient!"

'Help me'

While other firefighters tended to the girl, Reitz ran back into the house. He rushed up the stairs to the second floor, where he turned to his right. He went down a long hallway and passed two rooms on his right.

He recalled, "For some reason I kept going past them and I ran into a door."

When he hit the door, he heard the sound of a woman's voice. "I need help," it said.

Reitz felt a chill. He was on his hands and knees searching. He couldn't see her.

"Help me!" she said.

He reached out and felt her. The woman was Christina Echard. He then grabbed her and said, "I'm here. Is there anymore?"

"I don't know," she said.

He held her in a bear hug: "Come with me."

He asked her again if there were any more people in the house, and she said she didn't know. He took her down the hallway, climbing over debris. He met two firefighters, and asked where the steps were located.

He ran into Hines again and told him he had another one.

"This way," the firefighters said. "This way."

"I need the steps," Reitz told them.

When he made it to the first floor, the alarm on his breathing apparatus went off to let him know he was running out of oxygen. Once the oxygen is gone, the breathing mask would stick to his face and he would not be able to breathe.

Still holding the victim, he continued to climb over debris, determined to get her to safety. When his mask began to stick, he pulled it off and began choking on the smoke.

He thought: "This lady has been breathing this the whole time."

He got her to safety and ran into the house a third time. He went inside without his breathing apparatus. When he reached the bottom of the steps at the second floor, he saw the other firefighters coming down with several cats. "We've searched and we didn't find anybody," they told him.

He was not convinced. So he went out to the front of the house and grabbed an air bottle off a fire truck, and went back into the building.

He went to each room. All he found was another cat, and it was deceased.

He soon learned that the third occupant was already outside.

Good Fortune

Neely, the first victim rescued, remains in the Baltimore Trauma Center where she is listed in stable condition. Echard, the second victim, was taken to Chambersburg Hospital, treated and released.

At the time of the fire, they were in the house with a 12-year-old boy. Police have ruled the fire an arson. The fire was started by the boy, they said, who had been playing with a candle and lighter fluid on the back porch. He is now with the Franklin County Juvenile Probation Department.

The family is staying with family and friends, according to fire officials. Another family that lived in the other half of the duplex at 272 Lincoln Way West escaped without injuries. They are now being assisted by the Franklin County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Looking back, Reitz said he is amazed that everything worked out the way it did.

Everything from his finding a parking space behind the house, and his entrance at the right location was nothing short of good fortune and good luck, he said.

He said he's astonished that the man met him in the parking lot and guided him to the right place. He is also moved by the fact that the girl he found first was the one in the worst condition.

"Everything could have been worse," he said. "It seems like everything worked out the way it should have."

'Highly heroic'

Fire Chief William FitzGerald has applauded Reitz for his work. He and all of the other firefighters did a great job, he said.

"I've been in the fire service for 37 years. I came from big cities where we had a lot of rescues. This accomplishment is very rare. This whole thing is highly unusual."

FitzGerald, who spent 29 years in Washington, D.C., said that what Reitz did was "highly heroic."

"He was fighting his way through that debris under those dangerous conditions," he said.

Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal Jeff Sarver said Reitz and Hines and the others who went into the house are real heroes.

"If he had not been there, things would have been different. This guy is a hero. He put himself at extreme risk," he said. "Two people are alive because of him and the other firefighters."

For Reitz, it's hard to describe the feeling of saving someone.

"I don't know how to describe it," he said. "This is what we do. We save lives and we save property. After the second day, it gives me chills. It's a very emotional feeling."

According to Reitz, firefighters rarely make two rescues at the same fire. It's what firefighters dream of doing, he said: "I've done this for over 20 years. I've been close to several rescues, but this is the first time I've been directly involved."

Reitz said he will never forget the moaning of the girl, and how he felt when he reached out and touched her. He said he knew she was close to death. He also was happy that the second victim followed his instructions to get near a window and get on the floor. She had done just that in the bathroom, he said.

"In the fire service, we have a saying, 'Risk a lot to save a lot; risk nothing to save nothing,'" he said. "This was one of those cases where you risked a lot to save a lot."

Copyright 2011 Public Opinion
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February 16, 2011