LOCKE, N.C. -- The first call for the Salisbury mill fire on March 7 went out at just before 8:06 a.m. The blaze quickly consumed the building even as firefighters arrived.

Three minutes later, a firefighter can be heard on the radio saying, “It’s going to be heavy fire involvement in the basement, working fire.”

Then a firefighter at Salisbury Millwork Company said, “I believe it’s going to be a loser. I’m going to pull everybody out.”

Three members of the Locke Township Fire Department, which is on the outskirts of Salisbury, say it’s a day they’ll never forget.

“You keep playing it over and over and over,” said Capt. Bradley McKnight.

McKnight, Chief Rusty Alexander and Capt. James Hall were sent to the fire to standby in case they had to go in to save any firefighters. It iss standard practice in any major fire, but it’s rarely needed.

“We make sure the team inside has a second way out. That's basically all our role is. It may be throwing ladders to a second-story window or maybe forcing doors. But if something goes wrong, we're supposed to go in and get them,“ Alexander said.

On that day in March it went terribly wrong. Three Salisbury firefighters got trapped inside: Capt.Rick Barkley, Justin Monroe and Victor Isler.

The rescue team from Locke heard Barkley calling for help on the radio.

“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” came over the radio at 10:06 a.m.

“We heard the Mayday come across the radio. We grabbed our equipment and started running,” Alexander said.

“I couldn't even tell you, there were so many things going through my mind,” Hall said.

“It was one of the worst things I had ever heard,” McKnight said.

Alexander said, “We knew it from the sound of Capt. Barkley's voice how bad it was. We could hear it.”

A minute later, a firefighter said, “I'm on the hose line. The hose line's gone dead.”

Hall, McKnight and Alexander went in. Hall and McKnight crawled on their knees for 50 feet surrounded by flames 6 feet high and thick black smoke.

“You couldn't see anything,” McKnight said.

They finally reached Barkley, who was still alive. It’s a moment the men said they still have trouble describing.

“I'm not even sure how to describe what it was like,” Hall said.

While carrying Barkley, they were ordered to get out immediately because conditions were getting even worse.

“I wasn't sure if I was coming back out,” Alexander said.

All three made it out, but their uniforms were burned and their helmets charred.

Once outside they realized there were two other firefighters still inside the burning warehouse.

“It still goes through my mind today,” McKnight said.

“It's difficult to deal with everyday -- knowing that were was two brothers left in there that we could not get to,” Alexander said.

Monroe and Isler both died.

The crew from Locke said it still has many questions, but some they’re not ready to address publicly.

But Alexander said because of the Salisbury fire, he’s already changed his team’s response policy. The firefighters don’t usually take a water hose with them because the team moves quickly, but Alexander said that will change.

“I'd have a hose line with me. If not with us, have another crew with us with a hose,” he said. “We didn't have any protection, for us or for them.