A huge fire destroyed a Vietnam veteran’s home in Toledo, Oklahoma, but a fellow veteran saved his American flag from the flames while working to save the structure. Firefighter Allen Skomer was trying to extinguish the blaze when he spotted the flag waving between the home and a small building next to it. He grabbed the flag, carrying it away from the fire carefully so it didn’t touch the ground.
Skomer didn’t know the house he was working on belonged to a veteran, but he says the instinct to save the flag comes from his time in the military. "I didn't want to let it burn, so I went and grabbed it," he explains. "I'm an eight-year veteran of the Navy. It's just a knee-jerk reaction. I didn't want to see the colors go up. I would never knowingly let the flag go up in smoke or be desecrated in front of me if I can help it."
He saved the flag just in time because the roof of the house caved in shortly afterwards and the home was destroyed. That American flag is one of the few items that made it through the fire without damage, thanks to the firefighter going beyond the call of duty to save it.
Source: WTOL