Firefighter Videos Middletown Fire on Helmet Cam

"Mayday! Mayday! ... Activate the RIT team."

Those words echoed through the radios of firefighters from around Bucks County on the evening of Sunday, July 15 as volunteers from Newtown went into service at the scene of a apartment complex in Middletown Township.

Cody Stoner, a firefighter and EMT with the Newtown Fire Associaition, was recording the whole incident using a small camera attached to his helmet.

The dramatic footage follows the firefighter from the moment Newtown's ladder truck pulls up to the moment when crews enter the building after several firefighter mayday calls come across and finishes as firefighters are evacuated from the large multi-unit apartment building.

Firefighters from Newtown's Rescue 45 were set to act as the RIT (Rapid Intervention Team), a unit that is designated to assist firefighters that are in distress, but were still driving to the fire at the time of the mayday calls. The crew from the Newtown's Ladder 45 arrived before the rescue truck and went into the burning structure to help the firefighters in need, according to a written account by Stoner.

By the time the fire was extingished, more than 125 firefighters and EMS personel were at the scene. Five firefighters were injured; all been released from the hospital.

"I encourage other fire depts to use this video as training. Talk about what went well and critique what you think should have been done differently," Stoner wrote in the descrition of the video, which has been mentioned on both the fire association's Facebook page and on PhillyFireNews.com.

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