Baltimore Firefighter Honored Tuesday

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Every day, firefighters could find themselves in a position where their lives will be in danger.  Mike Schuh caught up with one city fireman who's lucky to be alive.

Firefighter EMT Jeff Novack is on a mission.  Tuesday, if he gets the right paperwork signed at the fire academy, a place where he has been for a few weeks, he gets to return to the streets as an active-duty firefighter.  He's not been one since April 7, 2010.

On April 7, a stubborn apartment fire on Liberty Heights was about to kill.

"I found two victims that night," he said.

Both were on the third floor.  He carried out an unconscious woman and went back in to help a man to safety.  But by then, the flames were all around him and the reflective stripes on his coat were on fire.  He needed to find a window and fast.

"I had to hang there, waiting for someone to come, but due to the fire which was burning my hands, I had to let go," Novack said.

That three-story fall shattered his pelvis and elbow.  He also had pain.  That led to eight months of rehab.

"He's very lucky he didn't die, very lucky.  He came close to it but through the grace of God, he made it," said paramedic Mary McElroy.

And Tuesday, there came national recognition.

"That's not only for myself, but I share that with everyone in this fire department," he said.

At this point, some might have called it a career, but not Novack.

"I live for this," he said.

Novack has a brother in the department.  Though a year apart in age, they graduated in the same class in the fire academy five years ago.