3 firefighters injured in Riverton garage fire

Jan Johnnson, who lives nearby and witnessed the fire, said her son pointed out flames. 

“We ran out the back door and we could see the flames on top of the roof,” Johnson said. “It was blowing towards the north and tons of smoke just coming out. The neighbor was concerned about his car and we just started yelling, ‘don’t go in there, don’t go in there.'” 

She said firefighters showed up within minutes. 

“It looked like they had pretty much put out a lot of flames. And then a firefighter came out from the garage, and he was on fire, his legs and his suit. He went to the ground and several other firefighters jumped on top of them to put out the flames.” 

“It made me want to cry. You know, just watching them. They really are heroes. It’s pretty cool to see.” 

“I can’t speak to any time where I’ve specifically been trained to jump on someone that’s on fire, but we’ve all been trained since elementary school to stop, drop and roll and to try and smother that fire out,” said Benjamin Porter, public information officer for Unified Fire. 

Porter says when emergency personnel respond to a call, they are going there with one thing in mind.

“We live by a motto that we’re going to risk a lot to save a lot,” he said. “When we see one of our loved ones or even a member of the public, that their life inevitable is in danger, we’re going to do whatever we can to try and change that outcome. And that’s ultimately what happened today.”

Porter also said crews will fight all fires the same.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of fire comes in,” he said. “If we get out to a fire, we’re going to aggressively get to that call. We’re going to aggressively fight that fire, because we’re never going to assume that it’s clear of life.”

Officials said there is nothing suspicious about the fire, and crews were quick to put the fire out. However, the cause of the fire is remains under investigation.