It all started on January 13 around six in the morning. A woman, Abbey Lemaire, was in her bedroom when a fire broke out inside her home. Due to the heavy smoke trapping her inside and her ACL being torn, she thought her life was going to end.
“If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today,” said Abbey Lemaire. He is captain Charles LaJack. LaJack has been with the St. Landry Parish Fire District No. 3 for eight years. “I remember her begging and pleading that she didn’t want to die and not to let her die, and obviously that wasn’t gonna happen, so I did what I had to do to get her out of there,” said LaJack.
For the first time in his career as a firefighter, the captain saved a life. The captain said most of the time, firefighters are dispatched and told there’s someone in a house and just to go in and search, and they find no one there, or the person is already out. Lemaire was his first fire rescue.