VIDEO: A Baltimore firefighter made a special South Florida stop to share how he survived a terrifying emergency. He said a simple technique saved him, and now it’s just one of several lifesaving lessons local firefighters are learning.
It was January 2022 when firefighter John McMaster and many others from his department were responding to a building fire when the structure collapsed.
McMaster and three others were trapped inside.
“There was too much weight, too much lumber on us,” he said. For 12 minutes, McMaster was buried in the rubble, but just moments before running out of air, he was rescued.
The other three firefighters, unfortunately, didn’t survive.
McMaster said a breathing technique he learned early in his career, called skip breathing, saved his life.