A Philadelphia firefighter became a hero twice over when he rescued a woman from a house fire on Wednesday.
As his fellow firefighters battled the flames, Fran Cheney rushed to the second floor of the burning house to rescue Mary Jackson, who was trapped in an upstairs bedroom.
According to Fox News Philadelphia, the woman was choking on smoke and struggling to breathe, so Cheney removed his own air mask, put it on her face and carried her to safety, risking his own life in the process.
"If I was worried about that, I wouldn't be here, and neither would any of these guys that I work with," Cheney told Fox. "That's what we do. That's who we are."
But his heroic actions didn't stop there. Fox Philadelphia reports Cheney donated the $500 of overtime pay he received to Jackson's family to help them "get back on their feet," he said.
However, Cheney's actions during the rescue drew criticism from fire department officials.
Although he escaped the blaze uninjured, Cheney was treated for smoke inhalation at Temple University Hospital and spent the night there. During his stay, a department administrator paid him a visit and chided him for taking off his oxygen mask.
According to Fox Philadelphia, "the fire department will investigate to determine if proper procedures were followed when Cheney put his mask on a victim."
Cheney said that given the chance, he'd risk his life again. And it wouldn't be the first time. Cheney narrowly escaped a 5-alarm warehouse fire in April that claimed the lives of two other firefighters.
As KNUE pointed out, this is the second time this week that a person described by some as a hero was criticized for going above and beyond the call of duty. In Florida, a lifeguard was recently fired for saving a woman from drowning because the rescue took place outside the zone he was supposed to monitor.