You don’t often see brave firefighters — at least when they’re out and about — take a moment to pause and reflect.
You don’t often see them mourn.
Or cry.
Or pray.
But one group of dedicated firefighters who were working in hurricane conditions in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Friday paused to kneel and pray outside a home that experienced terrible tragedy as a result of Hurricane Florence.
A mother and her eight-month-old infant son died on Friday in the port city of Wilmington when a tree came crashing down onto their home, as CNN, the New York Post, and other outlets reported.
The mother and child were the first known deaths attributed to Florence, which has now been downgraded to a tropical storm — it was a hurricane when it struck Wilmington on Friday.
Officials said the father of the child was injured in the incident; he was taken to an area hospital, the New Hanover Regional Medical Center.
A reporter for WWAY, the CNN Wilmington affiliate, said the Wilmington firefighters were “shaken up” by what they encountered at the home of the deceased mother and child.
The father reportedly was trapped inside for some time and finally was freed.
At least five people are said to have died as a result of Florence, officials reported Saturday morning.
The 400-mile-wide storm is expected to continue wreaking havoc in North Carolina and elsewhere throughout this weekend.
It came ashore Friday morning as a Category 1 hurricane.
“Florence is powerful, slow and relentless,” Roy Cooper, the governor of North Carolina, said in a press briefing on Friday.
“It’s an uninvited brute who doesn’t want to leave.”
Related: Fierce Florence: 300,000 People or More Without Power as of Friday Morning
“It’s like being stalked by a turtle,” FEMA associate director Jeffrey Byard said about the slow-moving storm, as Fox News reported.
“There’s a lot of rain to come,” he added.
“There’s a lot of rain that’s fallen.”
Though the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm, it has caused and is continuing to cause damage and blackouts throughout the state of North Carolina.
Two elderly men passed away as a result of the storm.
One was 77 years old and apparently died after he fell down due to high winds.
“Relatives told authorities he was checking on his hunting dogs at the time,” the Post reported.
And a fifth person reportedly died of a heart attack inside her home in Hampstead, North Carolina, the New York Post reported.
Don’t miss the moving video below of the grieving firefighters:
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