plane crash, plane crash. >> reporter: dave works with lieutenant emmons.re based at the airport. >> how quickly did you get to the site of the crash? >> from the time the run came in, i'd say we were in there in a minute, less than a minute. >> we were very quick to the scene. >> lieutenant emmons and monteverdi were the first to -- first responders to board the stricken boeing 777. >> we climbed up the chute that deployed on the left-hand side. >> we conducted a search, and then we worked our way backwards, and the remaining passengers were in the back of the aircraft that weren't able to get out. >> it was more a chaotic situation in the back, it was not as neat as in the front of the plane. >> both san francisco firefighters initially saw four passengers trapped in the back of the plane. and tell me why they weren't able to get out. >> one was going in and out of consciousness. one was stunned and groaning. i think another one of the passengers had multiple fractures in her leg possibly. there was another who trapped in the overhead bins may have collap

plane crash, plane crash. >> reporter: dave works with lieutenanted emmons.based at the airport. >> how quickly did you get to the site of the crash? >> from the time the run came in, i'd say we were in there in a minute, less than a minute. >> we were very quick to the scene. >> lieutenant emmons and monteverdi were the first to board the 777. >> we climbed up the chute that deployed on the left-hand side. >> we conducted a search, and then we worked our way backwards, and the remaining passengers were in the back of the aircraft that weren't able to get out. >> it was more a chaotic situation in the back, it was not as neat as in the front of the plane. >> both san francisco firefighters initially saw four passengers trapped in the back of the plane. >> why one the they able to get out? >> one was going in and out of consciousness. one was stunned and groaning. one of them had multiple passengers in her leg possibly. there was another who trapped in the overhead bins may have collapsed on her. >> lieutenant emmons also saw a fifth person lying flat. >> she

lieutenant emmons. >> my last name is spelled emmons. my mother calls me chrissy.e crash house, which is our nickname but it turned out to be a true event. i was on rescue 88 when the alert came in. so just a little history, a lot of times we get prealerts, which will be like an aircraft with some kind of mechanical issue, maybe a light indication, flaps, brakes, et cetera. those will be classified like an alert one or alert two. so, you know, that's our normal response there. we tend to respond to mainly alert twos and alert ones. so i guess at 11:27 the alert was struck and the communication from the tower was, alert 3, alert 3, plane crash, plane crash. it was a female that dispatched us and i knew from her voice that the event we were going to was real. i'll be honest, i did not hear too much after that as far as suited up, my driver and i exited the firehouse and we saw -- we made a left turn and we saw a large column of smoke at the end of -- the approach of the 28s. adrenaline was flowing at this time and i had to keep reminding my driver -- i hope he doesn'

today, lieutenant crissy emmons of the san francisco fire department described what she saw inside the plane as it caught on fire. >> by the time we removed the final victim, the conditions were that the fire was banking down on us-- we had heavy black smoke. i feel very lucky and blessed we were able to get those people out in that time. >> reporter: two 16-year-old girls from china were the only fatalities and one of them may have escaped the plane, only to be hit by a rescue vehicle rushing to the scene. but assistant deputy fire chief dale carnes says it's too soon to tell for sure. >> it's a very dynamic environment, dealing with an active fire and trying to rescue in the realm of 300 victims. so, this time, because we have not clearly defined and established those facts, we cannot answer your questions. >> reporter: as the plane came to rest, passengers scrambled to get out, despite emergency chutes that deployed inside the cabin. 62 of them ended up here at san francisco general hospital, while another 55 went to stanford. geoffrey manley is head of neurosurgery at san francisco