History Main / HeroicFireRescue

* Drew has quite a few of these moments in ''Literature/WarsOfTheRealm'', but the most applicable instance is when he averts a school shooting at Drayle University.

* ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'': Overlapping with WhatYouAreInTheDark when Laurence is held captive by Napoleon -- when the palace is set ablaze and he has a chance to escape unnoticed, he runs back to the building to save Napoleon's child. Napoleon is a FriendlyEnemy to Laurence for [[WorthyOpponent quite a few reasons]].

* Discussed in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', Siuan tells Mat that he reminds her of her uncle from when she was a fishermen's daughter. He was a heavy drinker, chased after woman all the time, loved to gamble and was able to charm his way out of any kind of trouble (which he frequently got in). He died rescuing children from a burning building; in fact, he died because he kept going back to look for more people and the roof collapsed on him. Siuan implies that Mat would do the same thing and he scoffs. [[spoiler: She turns out to be right, while not quite the same; he goes back to rescue Olver (his ward) in the middle of a Seanchan Invasion, braving explosions and damen attacks]]

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': After a bomb goes off in Beckett's apartment, Castle rushes into the burning apartment to rescue her. Played down somewhat because the apartment fires are quite small and it is then PlayedForLaughs when it turns out that Beckett is naked in her bathtub and she demands he hand her his jacket before they leave. Then Beckett lampshades this trope by joking that Castle must be extremely keen to tell her about his heroism with regards to breaking down the door and rushing into the apartment.

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* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': Chuck and Casey in "Chuck Versus The Frosted Tips", who run into a helicopter and its surrounds on fire to rescue Morgan and Gertrude Verbinski respectively.

* In the backstory of ''Series/GhostWhisperer'', this how Jim and Melinda met. He rescued her from a burning apartment complex.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS01E12Fire Fire]]":
** Cecil L'ively the {{Pyromaniac}} successfully attempts to invoke this trope by setting the fire at the hotel so that he can save the boys he was watching from their room.
** Played straight with Agent Mulder who rescues the children from the burning house at the final showdown, having to face his paralyzing fear of fire.

* Ditto with ''{{Series/Emergency}}'', only with a lot more success.
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': In "[[Recap/ArrowS2E22StreetsOfFire Streets of Fire]]", Sara Lance runs into a burning building to rescue a child while in her Canary costume, which is witnessed by a cop. When the cop tells the story to her colleagues later, she calls her a hero for the act of bravery. This finally makes Sara realize that all the people telling her [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre she's more than just the bad person she believes herself to be]] might be right.
* ''Series/ForeverKnight'': When Janette returns from her [[PutOnABus bus trip]], she has a stepson. She tells Nick the boy's father 'smashed in my door with an axe and swept me off my feet.' She neglects to mention that her apartment was on fire at the time and the man was a firefighter.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E17TheForsaken The Forsaken]]", Dr. Bashir is assigned to escort an AssInAmbassador delegation around the station, a situation he finds intolerable--until the four of them are trapped in a burning corridor. Bashir's quick thinking saves their lives, thus earning their respect.
* In one ''Series/BlueBloods'' episode, Jamie Reagan spots a building in flames and rushes in to rescue a baby. This is treated by the press accordingly as an act of heroism and they begin demanding the identity of the hero cop. Unfortunately, to put Jamie in front of the camera would mean blowing an undercover operation that he's currently involved in. So Frank has it arranged that Sergeant Renzulli take public credit for the rescue, while giving Jamie his commendation medal in private.

* Claire goes into a burning building to rescue a man in season one of ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. Justified as Claire has a HealingFactor, and pretty well knows she'll come out fine, although it was also something of a test on her part to [[HowDoIShotWeb understand her powers better]].
* Downplayed on ''Series/DowntonAbbey'' when Thomas pulls Edith from the fire in her room -- it's only a single room on fire rather than the whole building, but still a rather intimidating blaze. Given Thomas's [[TheFriendNobodyLikes general]] [[ManipulativeBastard personality]], it's more one of his PetTheDog moments than a straight display of heroic nature.

* Parodied in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' where the Pawneeans celebrate a man who saved a pumpernickel recipe from a fire at the local bread factory. Around thirty people died in the fire. He wasn't a miracle worker.

* ''Firefighter F.D.18'' for the [=PlayStation=] 2 is ''made'' of this trope, where you play as a badass firefighter and spends the whole game navigating burning environments to save trapped civilians. It was allegedly a licensed ''Backdraft'' game, but becomes a DivorcedInstallment as it's own title somewhere during production.
* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', there's a mission where CJ has to enter a burning house to rescue a girl. From a fire he caused in the first place. Man's a hero, no doubt.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': In Zaeed's loyalty mission, Shepard has to choose between running into a burning refinery in order to turn on the fire suppression systems and rescue the workers, or pursue the man Zaeed has wanted revenge on for twenty years and ignore the workers.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'' has Lukas' flashback of a fire at a military warehouse, near which he grew up. When it caught fire, several neighborhood boys snuck inside to play hide-and-seek, so Lukas had to go in, too, to get them out before the whole thing exploded. Depending on how many victims you rescue in the flashback, Lukas' SanityMeter goes down by different amounts (or even goes up, if he saved everyone) in the present.
* In ''VideoGame/BeyondTwoSouls'', some punks set fire to an abandoned building where Jodie and her homeless friends are resting, so Jodie and her poltergeist friend Aiden have to mount a heroic rescue. Anyone you fail to get to before they suffocate is KilledOffForReal.

* In ''VideoGame/ReturnToKrondor'', James has to save the children in a burning orphanage (set aflame as a distraction by the villain)... but the magician Jazhara will gladly throw a fire-resistance spell on him so he can move more safely through the orphanage and easily make up the time spent on the spell to save the kids.
* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'', the Player rushes into a burning CIA safehouse to save Kane, his/her handler. Before they escape, though, the Player kills Kane's captor by forcing her head into the flames. Ouch.

* Butch of ''Webcomic/ChoppingBlock'' was mourned as a hero when he ran into a burning building to rescue an old lady, and didn't come back out. [[SerialKiller They didn't see him escape out the back door, still carrying the old lady]] . . .

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** On the way to the company softball game in "Homer at the Bat", Jose Canseco comes upon a house on fire. "Save my baby!" He runs in and saves the baby. "Save my cat!" So he saves the cat. "Save my player piano!" [[ParodiedTrope He spends all day running in and out of the burning building saving things]].
** Ned Flanders saves Homer when the Casa Simpson catches fire in "Homer the Heretic".
** In "Dumbbell Indemnity", when Moe's bar burns, Barney saves...[[SubvertedTrope a couple of kegs of beer]]. [[SkewedPriorities Before]] [[DoubleSubversion running back in for Moe and Homer.]] [[ZigZaggedTrope And two cases of beer.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In "300 Big Boys", Fry (whose consumption of 100 cups of coffee has [[PowerUpFood momentarily given him superpowers]]) rescues the patrons of a burning art exhibit (one at a time, using super-speed).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Mixels}}'' episode "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away", the MCFD, the actual fire department of Mixopolis, fail to be this because they refuse to team up with each other thanks to the negative vibes that the Nixels have been spreading throughout Mixopolis. As such, they argue on working together to save a Mixie Cat from a burning apartment building. However, this leaves the Nindjas free to swoop in and save the day, saving the Mixie Cat while the building crumbles to ashes.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': In Episode 93, [[{{Jerkass}} Mr. Cat]] sets a building on fire with [[NighInvulnerable Quack Quack]] trapped inside. [[TheDitz Stumpy]] decides to go rescue him, but only after he gets inside the building and reaches Quack Quack does he realize that they have no way to get out of the building, as the flames have spread too far. [[spoiler: They finally escape since Stumpy realizes that [[MakesSenseInContext he can make a birthday wish]], and he wishes them to safety. Unfortunately, he gets too carried away with his wish making and [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext turns himself and his friends into pole dancers wearing weird costumes.]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'':
** In the pilot episode, "The Last Son Of Krypton", [[HerosFirstRescue the teenaged Clark Kent's first rescue]] as his powers are emerging is saving a family trapped in a burning car.
** In "Prototype", Superman and Metropolis Police's Sgt. Mills, who's using an experimental power suit, save people at a burning apartment building.

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' opens with the post-TimeSkip Aces assisting the firefighters in containing a large airport fire, though only Nanoha and Fate actually go in to evacuate the victims, while Hayate coordinates the efforts from the outside. Nanoha's rescue of Subaru, the seasons' central new character, becomes the turning point in the latter's life, [[FollowingInTheirRescuersFootsteps motivating her to pursue a mage's career to be more like her new idol]]. Simultaneously subverted in the case of Subaru's sister Ginga, [[BigBrotherInstinct who tries to rescue her on her own]] but almost dies and instead has to be rescued by Fate. [[spoiler:[[DungeonBypass The method which Nanoha uses to rescue Subaru]] also ends up being a ChekhovsSkill for the final battle (on top of Subaru being mostly unaffected by the inferno being the first bit of foreshadowing towards her cyborg nature).]]
* Happens every so often in ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries''. One notable example is Ash rushing into the burning Celadon Gym to save Erika's Gloom, thus earning himself the Rainbow Badge. Also seen with [[MakingASplash Water-type turtle Pokémon (Squirtle, Wartortle, and Blastoise)]] who are specially trained for this.
* Subverted in ''Anime/DigimonGhostGame''. {{Terrifying Rescuer}}s [=DarkLizardmon=] & Saberdramon attempt one of these using [=DarkLizardmon=]'s special attack Dark Flare, which creates a protective zone that incinerates anything trying to leave. The man they attempted to rescue is too scared to listen to their instructions and dashes outside, [[DarkerAndEdgier resulting in him slowly being burned to death by Dark Flare in front of his family and neighbors]].
* This is an extremely regular occurrence in ''Anime/TomicaHyperRescueDriveHeadKidouKyuukyuuKeisatsu''. Even the show itself mentions that fires are the most likely disaster. Typically, Taiga and his Drive Head Backdraft, which specializes in firefighting, will have a big part in stopping major fires.
* In ''Manga/PandemoniumWizardVillage'', Brow accidentally causes a massive fire by improperly setting off the firework he stole from Zipher, leaving him in the middle of it. Zipher rushes in to rescue him. [[spoiler: While this is happening, we are shown a flashback of him trying to do the same to his lover, Anna, when Arkhamheim is being razed by the Sky Golems. He was unsuccessful in saving her, but he does manage to save Brow, though he loses his left eye in the process.]]

* ComicBook/CaptainAtom had a superb ComicBook/PostCrisis story by Creator/GregWeisman where the hero, having just resigned his commission, has to rescue some vagrants in a building fire. In doing so, Captain Atom, who had to pose as a SuperHero to be a {{Mole}} in the Justice League, realizes that he likes being a superhero for real.
* In Vacation Time, a Donald Duck comic by Creator/CarlBarks, Donald manages to save himself and his nephews from a forest fire started by a careless camper. Worth noting is that up until this point, Donald has mostly been playing the fool, trying (and failing) to get a perfect photograph of a majestic deer. But once the fire starts, he takes charge. And he tells the kids to soak their shirts in water and put their shirts over their faces after which he buries them, each with a shovel over their face so they can breath, and afterwards burying himself. They survive, of course, but the forest is left in tragic ruins.

* In the Magazine/NintendoPower comic for ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast1992'', this is the action that endears Link to at least a few people in Kakariko who help him on his quest.

* Shows up in many ''Manga/DeathNote'' fanfics centered around Matt and Mello, especially of the YaoiGenre. Often, Matt goes in to rescue Mello from the rubble after he blew up a building to get away from the Japanese police (usually after having never having spoken to Mello since he left Wammy's house [[TimeSkip 5 years prior]]). Usually (though not always), Matt comes out of this completely unscathed, despite Mello's (canon) third-degree burn. And usually Matt is the one to [[AfterActionHealingDrama take care of him]].

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'', Phoebus performs one of these after Frollo has an innocent family trapped in their house and then sets the place on fire, successfully saving them all.
* Disney manages to pull a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome with this trope in ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6''. Tadashi runs into a burning building after his teacher [[spoiler:and does not make it out again. To top it off, [[SenselessSacrifice said teacher was never in any real danger]]. He faked his death by using Hiro's nanobots to shield himself.]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIII'', Mikey saves Yoshi from a burning building just before reuniting with his brothers. It's this act that convinces the village to start trusting the turtles.

* In the film ''Film/{{Turk182}}'' an off-duty fireman goes into a burning building and rescues a little girl; he gets injured, but since he had alcohol in his system the city refuses to pay for his medical expenses. His little brother goes on a Roaring Rampage of...uncivil disobedience.
* Creator/SamRaimi's Film/SpiderManTrilogy uses this twice.
** In the [[Film/SpiderMan1 first film]], Peter swings into a burning apartment complex to rescue a baby and then returns for someone else. The "someone else" turns out to be the Green Goblin.
** In [[Film/SpiderMan2 the second film]] Peter pulls one of these despite the fact has lost his powers. He rescues a baby, [[DeconstructedTrope but someone else doesn't make it out of the building in time]].
* ''Film/HomewardBoundIILostInSanFrancisco''. Shadow and Sassy rescue a little boy and his kitten from a burning house.

%%* In ''Film/MightyJoeYoung'', a rescue of this nature occurs toward the end of the film.
* In ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'', Peewee runs into a burning pet shop to rescue all the pets... [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes including the snakes]], although he waited until the last minute.

%%* Done by the title character in ''The New Adventures of WesternAnimation/PippiLongstocking''.
* ''Film/{{Always}}'' shows the flying kind, who are in every bit as much danger as their terrestrial counterparts, if not more so. Pete in particular is known to take extreme risks to fight forest fires, which eventually costs him his life. By the end, Ted is developing a similar mentality.

* ''Film/WildThing'': When Safe House, where Jane works, is burned down, Wild Thing climbs in through one of the windows to rescue a teenage prostitute trapped inside. He lowers her down on a rope and escapes through another window.

* In [=S.E.=] Hilton's ''Literature/TheOutsiders'' and [[TheFilmOfTheBook its film adaptation]], greaser delinquents Ponyboy, Dallas, and Johnny save several children from a burning church, giving them a story on the front page as heroes. Sadly, [[spoiler:Johnny eventually dies due to injuries sustained from the event.]]
* In the first book of Creator/TimothyZahn's ''Literature/TheCobraTrilogy'', the war has ended and a Super Soldier has come home to great distrust from his community. At one point he is almost hit by a car, and his computerized reflexes save him and then cause the car's tires to blow out, making it crash and killing the people inside despite his best efforts. Later on the mayor, who's on his side, gets him to a burning building after the firefighters have an equipment shortage, and he saves several people to mass cheers, daring then to hope that public opinion has turned around. It didn't, unfortunately; after the excitement died down he was regarded with yet more fear.
* In ''[[Literature/SpecialAssignments The Decorator]]'', Literature/ErastFandorin's current flame Angelina recounts an occasion from their travels when Fandorin rushed into a burning building to rescue some kids and suffered hideous burns on his face, saying that despite the scars, he was the most handsome man in the world to her at that moment.
* Discussed in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', Siuan tells Mat that he reminds her of her uncle from when she was a fishermen's daughter. He was a heavy drinker, chased after woman all the time, loved to gamble and was able to charm his way out of any kind of trouble (which he frequently got in). He died rescuing children from a burning building; in fact, he died because he kept going back to look for more people and the roof collapsed on him. Siuan implies that Mat would do the same thing and he scoffs. [[spoiler: She turns out to be right, while not quite the same; he goes back to rescue Olver (his ward) in the middle of a Seanchan Invasion, braving explosions and damen attacks]]
* When the demon Crowley in ''Literature/GoodOmens'' discovers the bookshop of his [[FriendlyEnemy best friend]] the angel Aziraphale in flames, he immediately runs in looking for him. Unfortunately the Angel has already being discorporated before the fire even started. He does manages to rescue [[TomesOfProphecyAndFate The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch]], which the [[BadassBookworm angel probably appreciated just as much]].

* ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'': Daja and Frostpine do this in ''Cold Fire''. Of course they are Smith Mages so it's slightly less dangerous for them to do it as they have magical resistance to fire.
** Coldfire also has another example [[spoiler: but of the subversion.]] Ben Ladradun is the heroic firefighter, rescuing people from burning buildings, [[spoiler: but also the serial arsonist setting the fires in the first place.]]
** And Daja previously rescued an entire caravan from a burning forest in Daja's Book.
* In the children's book ''Clarence Goes to Town'' Clarence (a non-anthropomorphic dog) is in a quiz-and-stunt show with a human, and one of the stunts is an obstacle course. Clarence goes off course because he spots a small fire backstage. After putting the fire out, they give him a special prize for doing that.
* How [[spoiler:Jonatan]] dies in the beginning of ''Literature/TheBrothersLionheart''.
* Early in the novel ''Literature/{{Corinne}}'', a fire breaks out in Ancona, and when Oswald finds out that the Jews have been locked into the ghetto for the night (as was common practice in much of Europe at the time), and are to be left to their fate, he himself the rushes to the ghetto, towards the fire, and breaks the gate open. He then uses a ladder to climb into the burning asylum and rescues the five inmates one by one.

* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''Rising Storm'', Fireheart and Yellowfang return to the burning [=ThunderClan=] camp to rescue Halftail, Patchpelt, and Bramblekit. [[spoiler:It doesn't work out too well for Yellowfang.]]
* Attempted by Pak in ''Literature/MiracleCreek''. He helps Teresa, Rosa, TJ, and Matt out of the burning tank, then runs in for Henry and then Kitt, even while covered in burns and coughing on smoke. Both die anyway, and Pak ends up paralyzed.

* ''Literature/PilgrennonsChildren'': While [[spoiler:the Emerald Forge]] is burning down, [[spoiler:Gamma]] climbs a chimney to escape the flames. Dana flies to where she is on the [[FullConversionCyborg wyvern]]'s back and pulls her onto the wyvern. Too weighed down to fly, the wyvern enters a controlled descent and deposits them mostly unharmed on the ground.
* A key plot point in ''Literature/IAmDavid''. When David sees that a shed containing a young girl Maria has caught fire, he takes the opportunity to ingratiate himself with God, and to rescue her. He gets burned himself in the process, but he succeeds. The girl's family are immensely grateful to him, and he stays with them for a few days.

* Subverted in an episode of ''London's Burning''; a man had to be forcibly restrained from rushing back into a burning house to rescue his daughter, and when he finally broke loose he ended up trying to sprint up an already-unstable flight of stairs that collapsed, injuring himself quite badly and making the crew's job a lot more complicated.

* In the Magazine/NintendoPower comic for ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', this is the action that endears Link to at least a few people in Kakariko who help him on his quest.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Bob and Lucius (AKA Mr. Incredible and Frozone) rescue some people from a burning building. This is while the SuperheroRegistrationAct is in effect, and they are almost caught when they accidentally break into the jewelry store next door.

* Happens every so often in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''. One notable example is Ash rushing into the burning Celadon Gym to save Erika's Gloom, thus earning himself the Rainbow Badge. Also seen with [[MakingASplash Water-type turtle Pokémon (Squirtle, Wartortle, and Blastoise)]] who are specially trained for this.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Fire":
** Cecil L'ively the PyroManiac successfully attempted to invoke this trope by setting the fire at the hotel so that he could save the boys he was watching from their room.
** Played straight with Agent Mulder who rescued the children from the burning house at the final showdown, having to face his paralysing fear of fire.

* ''{{Series/Arrow}}''. In "Streets of Fire", Sara Lance runs into a burning building to rescue a child while in her Canary costume, which is witnessed by a cop. When the cop tells the story to her colleagues later, she call her a hero for the act of bravery. This finally makes Sara realize that all the people telling her [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre she's more than just the bad person she believes herself to be]] might be right.
* When [[Series/ForeverKnight Janette]] returns from her [[PutOnABus bus trip]] she has a stepson. She tells Nick the boy's father 'smashed in my door with an axe and swept me off my feet.' She neglects to mention that her apartment was on fire at the time and the man was a firefighter.

* While he was serving as mayor of Newark, NJ, current US senator and [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking part time Batman]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Booker Cory Booker]] came home to find an elderly neighbors home to be on fire. Despite his personal security staff attempting to restrain him he rushed into the burning building and pulled the woman out, suffering second degree burns and smoke inhalation in the process.

** In the [[Film/SpiderMan1 first film]] the rescue turns out to be a trap set by the Green Goblin.

* ''Film/HomewardBoundIILostInSanFrancisco''. Shadow and Sassy rescue a little boy and his cat from a burning house.

* In ''Film/MightyJoeYoung'', a rescue of this nature occurs toward the end of the film.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In "300 Big Boys", Fry (whose consumption of 100 cups of coffee has [[CaffeineBulletTime momentarily given him superpowers]]) rescues the patrons of a burning art exhibit (one at a time, using super-speed).

A subversion sometimes occurs where a character will attempt to invoke this trope by setting the fire themselves, and then enter into it to rescue someone, hoping to come off as a hero. Usually this will backfire spectacularly. The character in this case is a HeroismAddict, and likely to be an actual villain.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AnExtremelyGoofyMovie'', Max and Goofy save Tank from the burning "X" logo after Bradley betrayed him. Tank is greatful for this and even returns the favor by letting Max win the race and giving Brad his JustDeserts.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AnExtremelyGoofyMovie'', Max and Goofy save Tank from the burning "X" logo after Bradley betrayed him. Tank is greatful for this and even returns the favor by letting Max win the race.