‘True heroes!’ Acts of bravery unfolded during Thursday’s massive South Park fire

Joe Marusak
·3 min read
2

Heroic acts unfolded during the massive five-alarm fire in Charlotte’s South Park area Thursday morning.

The most dramatic involved a trapped crane operator who was rescued as thick smoke billowed from the apartment complex under construction, which soon was destroyed by the rapidly spreading flames.

Video showed a firefighter climbing a ladder toward the worker and both eventually walking down to safety.

South Park, Charlotte fire: 2 missing after garage collapse; crane worker saved

“We still have a crane operator in the crane,” an emergency responder earlier reported, according to emergency broadcast information. “He’s stuck on the platform trying to get out.”

“We’ll get to him,” another emergency worker said.

The crane operator was 160 feet high, according to audio of the emergency broadcast.

“We’ve maintained contact with the crane operator,” an emergency worker said minutes later. “He’s in the cab, pretty sick up there for him to breathe. He‘s looking for some relief.”

“Command to Bravo Division,” a worker in a command center said minutes later, “you’ve got to put ladder 2 straight up to protect the crane operator.”

“Ladder 2 is the only thing keeping that crane operator safe,” a person soon reported. “You shut it down, that’s it.”

The crane operator was rescued about 10:50 a.m., nearly 1 1/2 hours after the fire started, WSOC reported.

Firefighters had to spray lots of water on the crane so it wouldn’t collapse, Charlotte Fire Chief Reginald Johnson said.

Food is brought in for people who working the scene of a massive fire spread across at least two structures and threatened others in Charlotte’s South Park neighborhood Thursday morning.
Food is brought in for people who working the scene of a massive fire spread across at least two structures and threatened others in Charlotte’s South Park neighborhood Thursday morning.

The operator had already begun climbing down when rescued, video posted on Twitter by Observer news partner WSOC showed.

“True heroes!” a man posted on Twitter. “The bravery & courage deserves our deepest gratitude! Watching the firefighter climbing the ladder with that 50 lbs of gears to look down at the fire is terrifying just watching.”

Firefighters continues to work the scene of a fire in Charlotte’s South Park neighborhood Thursday morning.
Firefighters continues to work the scene of a fire in Charlotte’s South Park neighborhood Thursday morning.

Firefighters also “heroically” rescued 14 people from the burning building, the chief said. Two construction workers who also were in the building remain unaccounted for, he said.

Because the fire spread so quickly, some of the 90 firefighters who battled the blaze also needed to be rescued, Johnson said, prompting two “Mayday” calls for more assistance.

“I’m proud of the work we’ve done here,” the chief said at a news conference.

The department and other responding agencies garnered national attention, receiving “a respectful tip o’ the @LAFD helmet from the Los Angeles Fire Department — for their amazing and inspiring efforts today.”

Local workers helped each other during big Charlotte fire

A worker who made it safely from the building recounted to WSOC how a co-worker screamed for everyone to leave when he saw flames.

Workers in nearby buildings also helped at the scene.

One of those workers told The Charlotte Observer he couldn’t even count how many fire extinguishers he’d found and used to spray ash and pop-up fires surrounding a suite of three buildings.

Staff Writer Kallie Cox contributed.