A heartwarming image of a firefighter reading to a little girl after a car crash in Billings, Montana, was captured on the evening of Wednesday, September 29.
The photograph was initially posted to Facebook by user Allie Schmalz with the caption, “Sweetest thing ever! This fireman is reading books to a little girl after being in an accident. First responders are amazing.”
The Billings Fire Department reposted the photograph to the department’s Instagram with the caption, “It’s the little things.”
Ryan Benton was the caring firefighter who read to the young girl, and though Benton was too humble to speak to KTVQ about his kind act, his friend and fellow firefighter, Cameron Abell, was more than happy to sing the praises of his colleague.
“Ryan’s a really humble guy and he’s probably going to kill me for kind of putting him in the spotlight,” Abell told KTVQ. “But he, he did great work that day, and he said he didn’t want to be on the interview because that’s his job and he’s just doing his job. And that’s kind of how we all feel. But we all know when somebody does something like that and gets spotlighted for it. It’s good to recognize their good work.”
According to Abell, the department has a bag with books and toys they bring to different emergency scenes in case children need to be comforted in stressful and worrying situations. Rimrock Credit Union and Usborne Books have been supplying the department with children’s books for roughly three years specifically for these situations, according to KTVQ.
“The book bags were an idea to bring some calm into their lives, to bring some sensibility into a really stressful situation,” Abell informed KTVQ. “There’s a lot that goes on that they may not understand or they’re just overwhelmed by, and so if we can bring a book in that kind of explains what complicated situations are kind of explains what firefighters do and maybe there’s a stuffed plush toy in there, just kind of the, the combination.”
“That kind of can bring them some sense of normalcy in a really terrible situation, sometimes for them,” Abell continued. “Something that we deal with on a day in and day out basis that parents may not be able to cope with yet because they’re also going through the same situation. The sense of calm that maybe we can bring to the children can help the adults calm down as well.”