UNIONTOWN, Pa. — Saturday was a first for Corporal Zachary Vernail of the Uniontown Police Department, who has been an officer for eight years and a volunteer firefighter for a decade. He’s never responded to a fire where someone was still trapped.
“Even as a firefighter, this was the first time,” Vernail said.
Vernail was on patrol Saturday when the call came in that a house on Evans Street in Uniontown was on fire. He was the first on scene and immediately jumped into action.
“I could clearly see a woman trapped on the front porch roof,” Vernail said.
He jumped out of his cruiser and grabbed the fire extinguisher from the back.
In his body cam video, you can see him make his way inside the house. There’s light smoke on the first floor, but upstairs was a different story.
“There was black smoke banked to the floor, and I could see heavy fire directly in front of me coming from a closet area,” he said.
He worked to put it out, but wasn’t able to fully extinguish it.
Then Vernail ran back outside as firefighters arrived, all within a minute of him getting to the house. He then put up a ladder and helped a woman who was trapped on the roof to safety.
“So I got to the top of the ladder, she is covered in soot, had severe smoke inhalation, so I’m just trying to talk to her and calm her down, and just kind of get her calmed down to the point where I need her to work with me to come down the ladder, which we were able to do successfully,” Vernail explained.
Vernail got the woman down the ladder and to EMTs, who took her to the hospital for smoke inhalation.
He credits the cross-training of being a firefighter and officer for his quick action on scene — including helping to calm the woman who was trapped.
“I’ve been a firefighter with the Hempfield Bureau of Fire for the last 10 years and it’s things we’ve trained on and drilled on for numerous years, so it’s a little familiar to me,” he said.
His bosses at the Uniontown Police Department said he set a great example to everyone in their department, saying, “courage is contagious.”
“I’m so proud of him, and it’s, it’s his mindset, too. His life, that he put his life in jeopardy is an afterthought,” said Lt. Tom Kolencik. “He did what he’s supposed to do and what he’s trained to do, and he put his life on the line. He didn’t think about that until afterwards.”
Police said the woman who was rescued from the home is expected to be okay.
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