When Lt. Davis Odell Jr. walked out of Fire Station No. 5 to observe the scene of an emergency call at the Pulse nightclub just two doors down, he knew this emergency was different than the countless others he'd seen in his 35-year career. "I could see people just running like crazy and screaming across the street," Odell said. "In the time it took me to realize that these people were coming from the club, I heard this steady 'pow, pow, pow.' It was very methodical and very deliberate."
Odell is the first of 80 Orlando Fire Department employees who treated victims of the largest mass shooting in modern history to describe the events that unfolded from a first-responder's vantage point.
Throughout the intense three hours gunman Omar Mateen terrorized nightclub patrons June 12, Odell said first responders had to act in an air of uncertainty. Odell said they didn't know where the "madman" was or if he was just around the corner ready to turn those helping the wounded into victims themselves.
"I didn't realize I was going to hear an active shooting situation, which definitely reinforced this is very, very serious," Odell said. "You know every time he's shooting in there, that's somebody's kid." With the sound of gunfire still ringing in his ears, Odell knew he couldn't send his firefighters into the night until police arrived. Once he spotted an officer with an AR-15 in front of the station a minute later, he opened the doors to immediately find bloodied victims hiding from the shooter behind the brick walls of the firehouse.