AFOSI agent saves man from burning death

  • Published
  • By James C. Dillard
  • Air Force Office of Special Investigations Public Affairs
QUANTICO, Va. (AFNS) --  For heroic efforts, an Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent was recognized with the Air Force Command Civilian Award for Valor here, May 24.

The award is given to those who go above and beyond their duties to help others. When Special Agent Bob Powers heard there was a fire in a public restroom, he said he didn't pause to think about anything else except for how he could help.
 
While others ran away from the situation, Powers went straight to the fire with the thought of preserving life.

It was late in the afternoon on February 12. Powers and his fiancé, Heather, were grocery shopping at a local grocery store in Norfolk, Va., when he heard someone say that there was a fire in the men's room. Several people left the building, concerned about their own safety. But Powers immediately went to the restroom to check if anybody was inside.

When he opened the door, he saw an elderly man who was on fire from the waist down.

"All I could see was flames and just the outline of a person," Powers said. "He was obviously engulfed in flames."

The man appeared unable to help himself. Powers held the door open and urged the man to walk toward the sound of his voice, but the man replied that he couldn't.

Powers found a fire extinguisher outside the restroom and, through the smoke, aimed the extinguisher where he believed the man's legs to be. The smoke became so thick, that he could no longer see the man at all.

The AFOSI agent pulled his shirt over his mouth and nose and entered the room. The smoke burned his eyes and made it difficult to breath, but he was determined to find the man.

With a store employee holding the door, he guided the man out of the restroom. The injured man was shuffling with his pants around his ankles and his legs were severely burned. His shoes and pants were smoldering, so Powers helped to remove them.

Powers didn't initially understand why the man didn't just come out of the restroom on his own, but then saw that the man relied on a walker. Between the pain of the burns, the pants wrapped around his legs and without full grasp of his walker, the victim was simply unable to escape. Powers stayed with the man until rescue services arrived and then left the scene with his fiancé. He would later find out that the man had accidently set himself on fire.

Norfolk's chief fire marshal credited Powers's quick response and calm actions as what likely saved the man's life.

For Powers the choice to act was a simple one.

"You just do it without thinking -- because it's the right thing to do," Powers said.