In the film Backdraft, the explosions almost seem too Hollywood, but what happened at Barnard actually trumped tinseltown.
"They said it was something off of a movie," said Captain Terry Sivadon, returning to the site for the first time since being taken away in an ambulance.
"Everything seemed routine, everything was going great," he said.
Eight firefighters went in the main entrance, and took a left turn towards the classroom at the end of the hall.
"A backdraft is just a fire that's lacking oxygen," said Captain Alec Ridener, the man who got to the room first, a room that belied it's true danger.
"It was smoky in the building but it wasn't high heat," he said.
"And there were no signs that we should have picked up on, to cause that, usually there is during a backdraft situation," said Sivadon.
When they opened the door and started to go in the floor started rumbling.
"We didn't really get any fire at that time, just uh, we knew something didn't go right, this wasn't normal," said Ridener.
But then, within seconds, the explosion.
"Turned the whole room red, and uh, I knew we were in trouble, I knew we were burning up," said Sivadon.
"I have never experienced heat like that, I've been on the fire department 12 years," said Ridener.
"That explosion, it rocked the building, blew the windows out," said Sivadon.
Knocked to the floor, with zero visibility, they called a mayday, and started following the firehouse out of the building.
"I've got burns to my left and right hands and to my wrist and to my right ear. I had skin grafts done on al three places," said Sivadon.
Bandaged brothers, who all went in together, and fortunately, all came out together.
Do you say to yourself, I'm lucky to be alive? "Definitely. Soon as we got out of the building I though that," said Ridener.
"It'll make you go home and hug your kids a little tighter, I guarantee that," said Sivadon.
