When the Pahrump Valley Fire and Rescue Service were dispatched to a brush fire near the area of Bannavitch Street and Highway 372 at about 6:30 a.m. May 22, at first the first responders only saw smoke on the open BLM land.

But Scott Perry, a firefighter-EMT, thought he heard something.

"As I got closer I thought I heard somebody yelling help, but I wasn't sure because it was so windy," Perry said.

Then he spotted a man standing in the smoke, surrounded by a few small fires.

"It was only because of a break in the smoke that I saw him," Perry said. "I was surprised, with all the smoke, that he was still standing."

Perry rescued the man, who Fire Chief Scott Lewis said sustained substantial injuries and possible second-degree burns.

The man, who had not been identified at the time of this writing, was transported to Desert View Regional Hospital, where he was last reported to be in stable condition.