Broussard Firemen speak on road to recovery after New Year’s Day fire incident

BROUSSARD, La. (KLFY) — Fire Chief Bryan Champagne said the morning of Jan. 1, they responded to a mutual aid call where their personnel were assisting with fighting a fire on Santa Cruz Drive when a brick wall came down, injuring three of the four firemen that were back there. 

Three Broussard firefighters injured while battling New Year’s Day house fire, authorities say

“We’re fortunate that in the accident, we didn’t lose anybody,” Chief Champagne said. “But the support of the community has been really good, and we certainly appreciate that. It’s helped us move forward as a department and it’s helped our guys move forward in their healing process.”

Captain Erik Mannting, 32, Firefighter Juston Chretien, and Firefighter Nicholas Stancliff, 20 were the three injured in the accident. Captain Mannting gave a mayday call. He said his first instinct was to make sure he could contact his firemen. 

“I was able to verbally contact with all three of them and make sure that everybody was taken care of. I put out the call for help and I got the help there and just the whole time I tried to communicate with them; I tried to get to somebody, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t get any further,” Mannting said. “Luckily, we provided great training here, so the training just kind of kicked in. I don’t remember doing it. I heard it since then, the radio tapes, but yeah, its training, you know, it goes back to training. It’s almost instinctual.”

Stancliff explained what he went through as the bricks fell on him and how he was able to get help.

“I had a lot of pain through my back,” said Stancliff. “I decided I wasn’t going to move at first and wait to be pulled out. But I started feeling the heat from the bricks. The bricks were on fire for quite a lot of time, so there were probably a couple hundred degrees, and they were actually burning me through my fire gear. So, I decided to get up and try to crawl to the nearest person I saw. The first person I saw was a crew member from Engine 13, the Lafayette Fire Department, who was able to assist me further away from the building.”

Cole Champagne, 25, an engineer of the fire department said he was struck by the brick wall debris as well. 

“The first thing I did once I got hit, I felt my whole body make sure I felt my fingers and hands and everything was still intact and right after that, I just went back to fighting fire itself. I didn’t even know what really went on. You know, it was a shock,” he said. “It was a scary feeling; I actually wasn’t one of the guys who helped rescue him (Nicholas). I was still fighting the fire. I had the hose out in my hand, so when I heard it go through the radio, it was just like, Wow, this just happened like a shock feeling, you know, listening to hearing Erik and I didn’t even know how many guys were down, but I just went back to spraying fire and then I see all the other guys go help them and it just kind of like, I can’t believe this happened. Like it was a real feeling, you know?”

Manning said, he is grateful for his city, for his community and the fire department.

“We’re deeply grateful,” he said. “We owe a lot to the city, to the community, to everybody, and especially to the department, the guys who helped me through it; they kept me out of some dark and we’re really grateful for it. From the time that it happened, I wasn’t left alone. I had one of these guys or somebody else in the apartment with me pretty much the whole time, which is great, they helped me. Their comedic relief that they provide is just you can’t beat it.”

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