It's hard to imagine there was a bowling alley on 5th Ave. in Troy on Wednesday. Perhaps even harder to imagine going inside Alpha Lanes when flames took over the historic bowling alley.

But that's what veteran firefighter Captain Corey Christensen did. He was the very first firefighter inside Alpha Lanes Wednesday morning, when thick black smoke billowed for miles.

He says he and a fellow firefighter had to call mayday when they heard a loud rumble above them, it got very hot, and things just lit up before complete blackness.

“It was definitely a scary situation, a lot crosses your mind in that brief amount of time: am I gonna get out, do they know I'm still here, is somebody gonna get me?" Christensen questioned.

He says firefighters are taught to use the hose to get out, so he and his partner ended up crawling out for what he says felt like a mile, though in the end it was feet.