Deputy medic Lee Black with the Hoke County Sheriff Office was on his way to an assault call Monday morning when just before 8:30 a.m. he heard a house fire call in the Clay Hill community on Doc Brown Road in Hoke County.
The dispatch confirmed there was one person trapped inside the house, so he switched gears and headed to the fire immediately.
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He was the first responder to arrive on scene, and smoke was coming out through the front of the house. A neighbor was in the yard waving him down and pointing to inside the house.
Black ran in through the front porch and found an older man on the living room floor unable to move. As the room filled with smoke, Black picked the man up and put him over his shoulder and got him out safely.
Once outside, Black was able to do a rapid trauma assessment as EMS was pulling up to the scene. The man he saved was quickly transported to the local hospital and is expected to survive.
Deputy medics are the first of its kind for North Carolina. First established in Hoke County in 2024, they are sheriff's deputies that are also certified EMT’s so they can render aid immediately in any kind of situation they respond to without having to wait for EMS to arrive.
When asked what he did after he saved the man’s life, he said, “After that call, I went to the next call. It was a motor vehicle crash involving a tractor-trailer and motorcycle, and we assessed that patient, treated that patient on the scene with multiple injuries, assisted with patient care, loading the patient, putting the patient in the ambulance, transporting the patient to a landing zone, and setting up the landing zone for the helicopter to come in and fly them out.”
Black has been in public safety for over 40 years. He doesn’t consider himself a hero but understands his job can be dangerous.
“I rescue in EMS, law enforcement, hazmat and so forth. Getting up, coming to work, doing what I do is what I do. I'm not a hero. It’s my job. That's what I'm paid to do. My job is dangerous. From the law enforcement side, sometimes on the medical side, sometimes on the rescue side, and sometimes from the fire side, we know that going into it, we expect that, we understand it,” Black said.