Lafayette firefighter's 'heart is here'
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Twenty years ago, Brian Alkire spotted flames in the attic of a burning home and rushed inside to warn six Sheffield Township firefighters.
"The floor of the attic was drywall, so it was keeping all the flames and the heat up in the attic," he said. "They were on ground level and didn't even realize what they had above them."
In a split second, the roof collapsed. Alkire was crushed, while other firefighters either managed to escape or were knocked into the driveway during the cave-in.
"Chances are they may not have (made it out)," Alkire said Thursday, days after he was sworn in as an assistant chief for Lafayette Fire Department. But he admitted that "it happened so fast that I don't know anything I did helped them get out."
With 19 percent of his body badly burned, including wounds to his head, face, fingers, back and leg, Alkire spent more than month in a medical unit for burn victims and roughly two years integrating back into work. But returning "was never a question," he said.
"My doctors at the time thought I was crazy and questioned whether I physically would be able to do it," he said, "but I obviously proved them wrong pretty quick."
Alkire joined LFD in 2000, moving up the ranks to become a sergeant and later a fire inspector. Twenty years after the incident, he said he'll use his platform as assistant chief of fire prevention to promote education and awareness in the community, especially among adults through social media.
"With new social media technology," he said, "it opens up a realm that we can touch a lot of adults in a short period of time that maybe we couldn't do before."
He'll also focus on reducing the number of kitchen fires, which he said account for 40 percent of home blazes nationwide.
"If we can knock down the largest percentage of fires," he said, "then we're well on our way to getting our numbers lowered."
Alkire is tasked with leading a team of four fire inspectors who, among other duties, enforce city and state fire code, investigate fires and run the annual Tippecanoe County Fire Prevention Show at Jeff High School in October, which is attended by roughly 5,000 children from pre-kindergarten to third grade.
He'll also collaborate with two other assistant chiefs who supervise training and special operations, including water rescue, hazardous materials and tactical rescue teams.
Todd Trent, an LFD fire inspector, said Alkire's perseverance shows his heart is in his work.
"He's always early, and he stays the whole day," he said. "He wants to be here; his heart is here."
As assistant chief, Alkire will wear many hats. But he said he'll always wear his scars as a reminder that burn survivors are people too.
"I looked at it as an opportunity to educate and show the people that I come across a different side of burns," he said. "Possibly educate people that it's not the end of the world, and we're really no different than anybody else."
___
Source: (Lafayette) Journal & Courier, http://on.jconline.com/2bB2HWw
___
Information from: Journal and Courier, http://www.jconline.com