In his mind, he’s not a hero.

“Anyone else in the fire service would have done the same thing,” said Lt. Scott Mahlan, a firefighter with South King Fire and Rescue since 1991.

Two weeks ago, Mahlan, his son and a few friends were in Buckley, watching helicopters, planes and vintage motorcycles at an event when suddenly the unexpected happened.

A helicopter, coming in toward the runway, saw a shadow of a nearby plane, Mahlan said — and swerved, crashing into the ground.

Several people ran over, including Mahlan, who along with his son, got into the cockpit.

“I got in the cabin with the lady and could see she was pinned,” Mahlan said. “I began working on her and my son was working over my shoulder removing cabin parts.”

The woman was complaining of neck, back and hip injuries, but Mahlan heard they were non-life-threatening. Other than that, he hasn’t heard anything about her condition.

Mahlan and his son worked quickly to get her cleared. Although there was no fire, there was gas leaking around the helicopter.

Once Mahlan and his son got the seat belt and some of the helicopter bits pulled away, a fire crew had arrived with a backboard, and it was easy to pull her straight out, Mahlan said.

“It was weird, kind of surreal,” Mahlan said. “It was ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’ You kind of lose track of time.”

Mahlan, who downplayed his involvement in the whole event, also thought he had left the scene quickly enough to avoid the media, he said.

“It just crashed and we went and helped,” he said.