WFAA
ARLINGTON, Texas — When you fight fires for more than two decades, there’s a good chance you’ll have a couple of close calls.
Billy Hirth just had three or four in the course of one week. The 52-year-old Arlington firefighter was helping Israeli firefighters respond to emergencies near the border with Gaza. “There were just different things,” he said. “At one point, a radio goes off in Hebrew, everyone runs. I figure that was a good sign I should run [...] a rocket hit about 600 feet from us.”
Hirth made the trip as part of a 13-man crew from the Emergency Volunteers Project. He said despite what some may think, his mission wasn’t about war or politics, but instead about trying to save lives. “It’s not religious-based; it’s not political; it’s just firefighters doing what they do here,” Hirth said.
Full story: Arlington firefighter back from ‘nerve-wracking’ work in Israel