Perspective from the ladder: ABC-7 interviews firefighter who battled De Soto Hotel fire

EL PASO, Texas -- It's been days since the De Soto Hotel went up in flames and still it seems a miracle the fire was contained to just the one building.

Seventy firefighters fought the flames, the first to arrive on the scene were the crew from Station 1, which is about half a mile from the De Soto Hotel.

At 5:13 p.m. Friday, just two minutes after the call came in, a crew from Station 1 was there.

"You should see it from the top it's like looking at the earth or the moon from outer space," Firefighter George Garcia said.

He is the captain of Ladder 1, a fire truck that helped battle the fire for hours.

Seeing the fire from above is a perspective only firefighters got Friday night, one that was never planned when crews first arrived.

Initially, Station 1 sent a crew in through the front door and ran a line up to the second floor. While another crew attacked the fire through the front window of the third floor.

"Couple of minutes after that, my chief said we're going defensive, this things getting out of control," Garcia said.

The decision was made just in time, according to Garcia. The windows shattered and pieces of glass started to fall, barely missing one of his firefighters.

Through the defensive approach, his team along with two other ladders were releasing water at a thousand gallons per minute on top of the roof and through the windows of the fourth floor.

From above they were also able to see everything that was going on and relay that to the ground crew.

"You could just tell by the smoke and the way the fire was darkening down that we were starting to get control of it," Garcia said.

Within about 90 minutes of Station 1 arriving on the scene and a crew of 70 firefighters from around El Paso fighting the blaze, the De Soto Hotel fire was completely contained.

"I'm very proud of them, I love them," Garcia said.