"At the time, the fire was in terrible condition. By the time we arrived, a flashover had already occurred—the concentration of combustible gas inside the house was too high, so everything caught fire at once."
"Also, there were too many wooden structures in that villa. The collapse was already severe when our team first entered."
"So what were you thinking when you decided to rush inside?"
The reporter who had arrived at the scene before dawn asked that question on camera, then held the microphone toward the "hero" in everyone's eyes.
"It is said that if you had been even a little later, the gas would have exploded, and you might not have made it out yourself."
His face was blackened with soot and sweat, his eyes slightly narrow, his wrinkles deep and rough. He was a man in his early thirties.
"I didn't think that much at the time. I just saw his mother crying and begging us..."
Nervous during his first interview, the fire captain merely wiped away his sweat and stiffly spoke words that were anything but eloquent.
"There was a child in there. I'm a firefighter."
The latter half of the video had been recorded on someone's phone at the scene.
The fire scene was pitch-black and lit by flames; regardless of the angle or clarity, the footage was awful. It showed him rushing in to save the child, then the explosion and cheers after he ran back out.
"Hey, did you guys see this video?"
"Yeah, yeah. I saw it in a push notification right after I woke up."
"Damn, that was close. It was really down to the wire."
"I never thought we'd actually see something like this happen in real life."
In this information age, although its attention would probably soon be stolen