Helmet cameras have a tendency to capture inherently cool stuff. You’re probably wearing the helmet for a reason, after all. But firefighter helmet cams are especially incredible because they aren’t just some staged event, but a real situation with real people putting themselves in actual danger.
If you want to feel bad about what you do for a living, here are some astonishing examples of brave men doing brave things in the face of all-encompassing flames.
This video popped up this week without much information about where it was or how serious. We’d seen interiors of firefights before, but this one seemed more visceral, with the radio chatter. [Firecritic Fark]
It’s not indoors like the other videos, but a few seconds into this one, a tank explodes inside of a building and forces everyone to take a step back. [Firecritic]
This one’s a little hard to make out because of all the smoke, but it’s also crazy that firefighters work with such low visibility, too. You can also see some of the tools and tactics used by the team.
This feels more like a horror scene than a typical all-action firefight from the movies. It’s tense, dark, and really captures how freaking scary it’s got to be to go stomping into a burning, crumbling building. [BackStepFirefighter]
The firefighters don’t actually enter the building in this video, but seeing a “fully evolved” structure fire up close is still kind of breathtaking. You’ve probably seen fire crews running into burning buildings in movies, but somehow seeing the giant fire recorded from a regular camera is much, much, much more terrifying.