The hallway was full of the ordinary movement that happens between classes.

Students moving from one room to another. Teachers watching the flow. A school day carrying on in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Then it changed.

On September 5, 2024, a 15-year-old girl was in the hallway of a high school when another student approached her with a bottle filled with gasoline. According to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, the student raised the bottle over the girl’s head, poured gasoline on her, and used a lighter to set her on fire.

The flames spread across her head and torso.

Sean Hayes was in the hallway when it happened.

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Hayes was 33 years old and worked as a teacher. He was not responding after the fact. He was there as the attack unfolded.

His first instruction was direct.

He told a co-worker to call 911.

Then he turned to the girl.

Hayes told her to get to the ground. He moved onto his hands and knees beside her and tried to roll her, but her backpack got in the way. When that did not work cleanly, he rocked her body to smother the flames.

He used his hands to pat them out.

Then the fire jumped to his own clothing.

Hayes stood and pressed himself against nearby lockers to extinguish the flames on himself. He removed his overshirt and T-shirt, then used the overshirt to continue putting out the flames on the girl.

When that shirt was damaged by the fire, he asked a co-worker for another one.

The co-worker handed it to him.

Hayes kept working.

By the time a school police officer arrived and relieved him, most of the flames on the girl had been extinguished.

But the hallway was not done burning.

Hayes noticed flaming gasoline on the floor. He retrieved a discarded fire extinguisher and used it to put out the burning puddles while others tended to the girl.

Emergency personnel transported both the girl and Hayes to a nearby hospital.

The girl suffered burns to 40 percent of her body and spent about three months hospitalized. She recovered.

Hayes suffered burns to the left side of his body, including his face, neck, side, and hand. He recovered.

The response was not one motion.

It was instruction, movement, adjustment, exposure, and another adjustment.
Call 911. Get down. Roll. Rock. Pat. Remove burning clothing. Use the shirt. Ask for another. Put out the floor.

Hayes kept answering the next problem in front of him.

Sean Hayes instructed a co-worker to call 911, moved beside a burning student, used his hands and clothing to smother the flames, and then used a fire extinguisher on burning gasoline in the hallway.

That is what he did.

It is worth noticing because the danger did not stay in one place. The flames were on the girl, then on him, then on the floor. Each shift required a new response.

He did not step away when the fire reached him.

He put it out and continued.

A student was burning in a school hallway. Hayes got down beside her and kept working until the flames were controlled.

That changed what happened next.

If an emergency changed shape while you were already responding, would you keep adjusting or step back once the danger reached you?