The Captain Who Ran Back In Three Times
When the apartment fire on 4th Street erupted, Captain Mike Rivera made three trips through the smoke — and every trip, he carried someone out.
Captain Mike Rivera doesn't consider himself a hero. He calls it Tuesday. But on the Tuesday morning of March 14th, the call that came in at 3:42 AM was anything but ordinary.
A four-story apartment building on 4th Street was fully engulfed by the time Engine 12 arrived. Mike and his crew set up the line, but he heard a child crying from the third floor. He went in.
He came back out with a six-year-old boy. Then he heard another voice. He went in again. This time, an elderly woman who had been sleeping in her wheelchair. He came back out, lungs burning.
And then a neighbor pointed up. Someone was still on the fourth floor. Mike adjusted his mask and went in a third time.
All three made it out alive. Mike spent two days in the hospital with smoke inhalation. When asked about it later, he just shrugged. "There were people in there. I was already on scene."
That's what an unsung hero sounds like.
