Firefighter Describes Scariest Moment, Most Rewarding Rescue

Captain Michael Martinez is the captain of "C" shift at Station 21 in New Tampa. He's been there since the station opened in 2001.

His journey through the City of Tampa Fire Department includes stints at Station 18 near 30th Street and Hillsborough Avenue, Station 14, Station 18, plus 19 years at Station 12 near Hillsborough and MacDill avenues.

Martinez has 29 years of service to his record and is just eight months away from retirement. The captain's father, Richard, was a city firefighter for 24 years and his older brother, Rick, is a Hillsborough County firefighter. Martinez is a Tampa native, having graduated from Tampa Catholic High School.

Patch: Describe one of your most harrowing experiences on the job.

Martinez: This was when I was working at Station 9 near Hyde Park, back in about 1987. It was a residential fire, two-story. We got inside and the fire was all over. We headed up this spiral staircase and suddenly my oxygen mask started to leak. I started just sucking up smoke. I sort of panicked. I pulled an about-face and had to get by two more firefighters to get the heck out of there so I could get a different mask. That really got my heart racing; I couldn't get a breath from the time the mask sprung a leak until I got outside, already with lungs full of smoke. I got a new mask and went back in there and we fought that fire back.

Patch: What was one of your most rewarding experiences on the job?

Martinez: Late '80s when I was at Station 12. We had a house fire near Rome and Norfolk. It was a hot summer night and the house was already about 50 percent involved. The neighbor came running over and said there was still someone inside. We looked in the bedroom window and sure enough there was a guy laying face-down on the bed. My partner at the time, Keith Anderson, did the ol' one-foot-up-and-through-the-window deal and I landed inside. The fire was already starting to creep into the bedroom and we knew we had to get the guy out of there. I ran over to him and reached out to grab him; he wasn't wearing a shirt and I just peeled his skin back — he must have been so badly blistered. That's when I knew I would need help getting him out of there. Keith jumped in and we sort of tossed this guy out of the window. By the time we got the fire out, he had mostly got his senses back, he was awake and alert. He was stabilized before they took him to the hospital, and we knew he was going to make it.

Patch: What is the most calls you've answered on one shift?

Martinez: Eighteen.

Patch: What do you do to unwind after a shift like that?

Martinez: Sometimes you just don't. You become a little de-sensitized to it after a while. Plus I have a second job in First Aid at Busch Gardens so I know either way I have to go to work the next day.

Patch: If you were not working as a firefighter, what do you think you would be doing?

Martinez: Before I started with the fire department, I delivered beer from refrigerated trucks. I expect I would just be further up that chain of command into a higher position with that company.