Jay Redmond said it was the longest minute and a half in his life.
Redmond is a captain in the Concord Fire Department, and those 90 seconds happened while he was on duty in the early morning of Jan. 4.
Redmond used the department's radio system that night to contact three firefighters in the West Concord Fire Station, and when there was no answer, he was concerned.
Redmond knew fire alarms went off in the station, but he didn't know where the firefighters were, and whether they had made it out safely.
Lt. Brad Ferrie and firefighters Kevin Fagerquist and Bill Haugh made it out, but they couldn't reach their gear because of a fire filling the station with thick smoke and extreme heat. All they could do was watch from outside the station as firefighters from the Walden Street Station put out a blaze that caused $2.5 million in damage.