“It’s moments like this, that I am reminded, this is why I do the job.”
Veteran firefighter Chris Blazek was taking a well-deserved shower after battling a three-hour long house fire.
Then his pager rang, it was a car crash involving a pregnant mother and her three young children.
“Hearing that makes your heart rate jump up a little bit,” Blazek told the Washington Post. He hopped out the shower and threw his dirty clothes on. He ad his team raced to the scene of the accident. When they arrived they found the pregnant lady in pain and distressed. She had severe back and abdominal pain, she was immediately taken away in an ambulance.
Blazek turned his attention to the three girls in the back of car. Aged between 7 and 4 months, the elder girls were shaken but thankfully not injured. The baby, however, was crying.
“Screaming bloody murder,” Blazek recalled.
As soon as he picked her up, she started to settle down. Blazek made sure she wasn't injured and she got comfortable in his arms.
“She just embraced me,” he said. Once his team had the situation under control he settled down, having four daughters of his own he realised that the poor little thing was exhausted.
“Me and my new friend decided to sit down and take a break,” he said. “As soon as I got comfortable, she closed her eyes. She was out like a light.”
What he didn't notice was his colleague taking a sneaky snap of the sweet moment. Later it was uploaded to the precincts Facebook page and soon went viral.
Not surprised that he was the one to take the little one under his wing. Blazek has a degree in child and family studies University of Tennessee.
“Some of the guys don’t have children yet, so it tends to be me who goes to the children first,” he said. “To me, it’s second nature — the baby needed to be held and comforted and I was the guy to do it.”
The girl's father and grandmother arrived to collect the children from the scene of the accident. Whittley Hightower, the mother involved in the accident was released from hospital with no injuries.
She later took to Facebook to thank Blazek and his squad: “I really want to say thank you for being there for my three girls. It was such a scary moment for all of us. God bless you.”
“Mrs. Hightower it was an honour and privilege," he replied. "Glad to know you and the girls are doing well.”
A hero and gentleman!
