Fla. Firefighter Searched Burning Homes

Firefighters work on a blaze that gutted two homes in Sanford, Fla., after a twin-engine plane crashed and struck the houses, killing five people, Tuesday, July 10, 2007. Dr. Bruce Kennedy, a Daytona Beach plastic surgeon and husband of International Speedway Corporation President Lesa France Kennedy, was among the people killed. (AP Photo/Daytona Beach News-Journal, Nigel Cook) (Nigel Cook - AP)

SANFORD, Fla. -- Ryan Cooper was standing in his driveway when he saw the small plane crash into his neighborhood, setting two homes ablaze. Minutes later, the off-duty firefighter dashed into the houses in search of survivors.

The fast-moving blaze was being fed by hundreds of gallons of aviation fuel pouring from one floor to the next as Cooper groped through the smoke and flames without an air pack.

He rescued a 10-year-old boy, then went back for the father. He also tried to save neighbors in the burning house next door but couldn't find anyone before a police officer pulled him out for his own safety.

In one of the homes, "the conditions on the outside had deteriorated greatly to the point where I almost got disoriented to where I was," the 30-year-old Cooper said Wednesday from the hospital. Eventually, smoke inhalation stopped him.

Five people died in the crash _ a NASCAR pilot and the husband of a racing executive aboard the plane, as well as a woman and two children in the destroyed homes.

Sitting in a wheelchair with intravenous tubes in his arm, he preferred not to be called a hero.

"Everybody that goes to work, every 24 hours at every fire station across the country, it's their job to do it," Cooper said in a short interview.

Friends and neighbors of the people who were killed mourned their losses Wednesday, and federal aviation officials investigated the crash.

The airplane was heading from Daytona Beach to the central Florida town of Lakeland, about 100 miles away. Shortly into the flight, the pilot reported smoke in the cockpit and was cleared for an emergency landing.

On Wednesday, National Transportation Safety Board crews recovered all the plane's wreckage, but there was no indication what caused the crash.

"Cursory examination reveals no obvious mechanical abnormalities or deficiencies," said Robert Sumwalt, the agency's vice chairman.

Killed were both men on the twin-engine Cessna 310: 54-year-old Dr. Bruce Kennedy, a Daytona Beach plastic surgeon and husband of a prominent NASCAR official, and NASCAR Aviation pilot Michael Klemm, 56.