Memphis Fireman Slips on Ladder While Battling Blaze

Memphis Fireman Slips on Ladder While Battling Blaze

A new video making the rounds online shows just how far firefighters go to protect others.

Janice Bridges filmed a 20-second clip and posted it to her Facebook page on April 19. Bridges is a photographer for the ABC affiliate in Memphis, Tenn. She captioned the video, "Fireman having a bad day on a slippery truck..."

In the clip, a Memphis firefighter is trying to extinguish a tractor-trailer fire. He's standing on a ladder that's propped against the truck and aiming a strong stream of water at the fire. Suddenly, he loses control of the hose, and the force of the water knocks the ladder off its bearings, causing it to flip over.

The fireman, dangling from the bottom side of the ladder, then drops the hose, probably because he doesn't want to hit any oncoming cars and needs both hands to try to regain control. But to no avail The ladder slowly slips downward until the firefighter is out of the camera's view, most likely falling to the ground.

Post by Janice Bridges.

"We checked the TDOT (Tennessee Department of Transportation) cam...he only had bout (sic) a foot to the ground when he dropped out of view..so he's ok," Bridges wrote in the video's comments section.

She hopes the video will shine a positive light on how hard the Memphis Fire Department works.

"They're heroes every day," Bridges wrote. "He was in a lot of danger there on that initial knockdown attempt. I'm just a photographer, can't help him do his job, but I can bear witness. Firemen and policemen risk grave injury every day they are on the job to help the rest of us."

According to WMC-TV in Memphis, the blaze occurred on Interstate 40, near Sycamore View. Luckily, no one was injured.