Firefighters from across Ohio train together to honor the life of fatal Sylvania fire victim

ROSSFORD, Ohio (WTVG) - February 3rd is a day family and friends of Dominick “Bama” Hunt say they will never forget. Smoke engulfed Bama’s Sylvania Township home, leaving him trapped inside.

“I ran to the back of the window and just continuously started screaming for Bama, calling him by his full name Dominick Michael Hunt trying to get him to be alert to hear my voice to get out of the house and that never happened,” said Fiancée Teresa Laney.

Bama’s finance and step-daughter say he spent his final moments helping everyone inside his home escape safely.

“He’s a hero, a true hero,” said Laney. “He would give anyone the shirt off his back, he was always there for anybody who needed anything.”

According to firefighters, temperatures were too hot to enter, so they fought the fire from outside the house.

“I’m not saying anybody did anything wrong, it made me realize that I need to train more, I need to get better,” said Rossford Firefighter Mike Lord.

This weekend firefighters across the state of Ohio came out to Rossford, practicing life-saving rescues inside a home simulating a real fire. Rossford firefighter and best friend to “Bama” Mike Lord is behind the training event.

“Instead of saying hey my friend died in a house fire and everybody beat themselves up about it, let’s use that and become better at our jobs,” said Lord.

Firefighters battled smoke, rain, and mud to simulate the real challenges at the scene of fire rescues.

“Through this training, we go through all of this pressure and we learn to deal with these critical scenarios, these critical situations,” said Captain Joe Reams with the Washington Township Fire Department.

Bama’s friends and family watched the training exercises take place, they say seeing waves of fire personnel learning in his honor would have made him proud.

“It’s not about who it’s for, it’s about what it’s for,” said Lord.

“This training is going to bring so much light and so much change for the better and hopefully save so many lives that might have been saved before,” said Bama’s stepdaughter Samantha Foxdale.

Organizers of this weekend’s training say they plan on making it an annual event.

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