How Leading with Heart Resulted In a Hero

What are you supposed to do when there's a fire in an apartment unit, and you find out there's a dog inside, but the Maintenance Staff say the situation is too dangerous?

For Grant Corbett, RealPage Smart Building Service Technician, his answer was to jump into the unit to save the dog.

When Grant visited the Watermark Seaport apartment community, his intention was to look into some service issues. However, when he and a Property Maintenance Staff Member finished up work in a unit, the fire alarm system went off. The alarm alerted them to a fire on a different floor, and they rushed to investigate. As soon as they stepped off the elevator, the hallway was already smokey. The water pooling outside one door served as a sign for the source of the fire.

The Resident was fortunately safe and away from the unit, reporting the fire in the unit to Property Staff in the lobby. However, a Maintenance Staff Member reported that the Resident said there's a dog still in the unit, so the Maintenance Staff and Grant tried to get inside. The water from the sprinkler system spraying and smoke billowing out overwhelmed them. Grant attempted to get inside but he had underestimated the amount of smoke and had low visibility, so he exited.

After assessing this situation, the Maintenance Staff determined it was too dangerous to get inside the unit. But Grant refused to take this answer, and replied, "Well, I'm not staying outside the door without trying to save the dog."

After taking a moment to plan together, Grant rushed back into the unit. Though the thick smoke filled the apartment, there were fortunately no flames in sight. He navigated to the bedroom, grabbed the dog, covered its face, and carefully hurried outside. After dashing out of the burning unit, Grant was able to reunite the Resident and their dog.

When asked about the situation, Grant responded, "I was well aware of the risk when entering the situation but I'm glad I did what I did. I have no regrets and would do it again if I had to. With good planning and situation awareness, I was able to come up with a plan that would keep us out of danger but more importantly get that dog out. I was just thankful that I was in the right place at the right time to make a difference."

Though we don't encourage entering dangerous situations like this, we are so thankful for everyone's safety, Grant's kindness and bravery, and the Watermark Seaport's Maintenance Staff's quick thinking.

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