Firefighters try to salvage anything they can from fires, as things get ruined by smoke, water and the fire itself.
After the smoke cleared at a fire in East Bakersfield this morning, the red white and blue colors of the American flag stood out to Korie Walkley from the Bakersfield Fire Department.
"We try to salvage as much as possible. With the water flowing and with us blowing ceilings and checking for extensions I wanted to get this out to get it outside to preserve its greatness," he said at 5 a.m. when he and his crew were in the mop-up phase of the fire.
Like many of our local fire fighters, Walkley's 24-hour shift didn't end there. He had no idea that his small act of patriotism had reached thousands of people in our area both online and on-air.
"I've gotten good feedback. It's been really nice to see that, you know, people took what I did and and see that as a sign of patriotism and really honoring the flag," he said.
Walkley is also one of the instructors at Bakersfield Fire's 2017 Academy. He hopes to teach future fire fighters the same core values the Bakersfield Fire Department instilled in him.
"We respect the flag, we honor the flag. We honor those who fight for the flag and I thought it was an important thing to do at the time," Walkley said.
