PHOTO: A heart-wrenching moment from the scene of this weekend’s devastating house fire in New Glarus demonstrates the impact a firefighter can have – even when they aren’t battling the flames.
The New Glarus Fire Department shared the powerful photo on its Facebook page Tuesday afternoon, showing a little boy embracing the firefighter as his family was getting their first look at their burned-out home.
The post explained the child was in tears, racing after his mom, when a firefighter who came from a neighboring department to help stopped, knelt down, and wrapped his arms around the boy. His dad, who snapped the picture, could instantly tell how much that gesture meant.
“The father saw his child calm and wrap his small arms around this stranger whom he instinctively recognized as there to try to help… and indeed he did, more than he could have imagined,” the fire department’s post said.