‘It was my worst fear’: Wheelchair-bound woman reunites with firefighters who saved her life

Woman thanks firefighters who saved her

A wheelchair-bound woman who became trapped inside her house when it caught fire last October personally thanked the firefighters who saved her life.

TAMPA, Fla. - A fast-moving fire last October became a dire emergency when a 911 caller told the operator the woman inside was disabled. With a disabled victim in a burning home, the rescue becomes the focus, not the fire.

"You just block it out," says Captain Rodger Shipp of Tampa Fire Rescue. "I don’t know how to explain it. It just becomes second nature. You do your job."

As Shipp and his Engine 7 crew moved toward the fire on 18th Street, the dispatcher who took the 911 call waited for the next radio transmission.

"Even though we have a lot going on, it’s something we pay attention to," explained emergency medical dispatcher Bryan Smith. "It’s one of those calls we want to know the ending to." 

As Smith listened to his radio, the woman inside the burning home heard the rescuers.

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"There was banging on the front and the back door," she shared. "And they were saying ‘It’s a fire! You have to get out!’"

Wanda is confined to a wheelchair and she wasn’t sure she could make it. She was frightened. 

"I never wanted to be in a fire," she said. "It was my worst fear."

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Wanda crawled from her bed to her wheelchair just as firefighters got inside her door. They got there just in time. She lost everything in the fire except her life. 

"I did break down and cry and thank God that he allowed me to make it out," she said.

Now, months later, her rescuers return to visit Wanda, and they get something too.

"When you’re able to come back and see the difference you made it makes you feel good about what you do for the city of Tampa," explained Shipp.

They could fight a hundred fires and wonder why they do it, but endings like this one brings the answer.

"Because if it had not been for them and the help of the Lord, I don’t think I would be here," shared Wanda. 

The organization that presented her with the check, The Firemen’s Benevolent Association, has been helping firefighters and fire victims in Tampa since 1909. Learn more at www.fbatampa.com.