Apartment house on fire, quick actions, military training, saved lives

Marine Saves Lives in Apartment Fire
Marine Corps News
by Cpl. Sarah Cherry
Feb 28, 2014

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort -- Just past midnight, in the dark early morning hours of Feb. 17, Lance Cpl. Tad Steadman and his friend Mike Hassan were working on their cars outside the Westbury Mews Apartments in Summersville, S.C., when Steadman, an air traffic controller aboard Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, noticed something wrong.

A small fire was beginning on the second story of the 900 block of the apartment building.

"I saw it’d started jumping up to the third deck," said Steadman, who immediately directed Hassan to call 911 and ran into the building. "I ran straight to the second story to the apartment it started in and started banging on the door. My first thought process was getting everyone out."

As Hassan, a former soldier, spoke with emergency services on the phone, Steadman continued alerting residents moving next to the apartment directly above the fire. Soon he was joined by Hassan and helped clear people out of the building.

"Military mode kicked in," Hassan said. "We were yelling 'fire, fire, fire' and 'get out.'"
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