While bystanders stood outside recording a hotel engulfed in flames before dawn, a young United States Marine chose action.

Lance Cpl. Marshall Martinez ran into the burning Hotel Hamby Resort in Chatan, Okinawa, pounding on doors and shouting to awaken sleeping occupants.

Martinez, a 25 year old combat engineer from Fillmore, California, was walking home with his girlfriend early Aug. 15 when he noticed fire spreading through the hotel.

With lives potentially hanging in the balance, he did not wait around for someone else to step forward.

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“You got to do something because every second counts,” Martinez said during an Aug. 21 interview at Camp Courtney.

That simple assessment separated the Marine from those apparently more interested in collecting video than confronting the emergency.

“I saw people evacuating [but] there’s probably still people in there sleeping,” he said. “I went in there banging on doors, yelling ‘fire, fire, fire!’ ”

Okinawa Prefectural Police received a report about the blaze at 3:30 a.m., according to a police spokesman.

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By that point, Martinez had recognized the immediate danger and was moving through the hotel to alert anyone who had not yet realized the building was burning.

Martinez serves with III Marine Expeditionary Force Battalion, III MEF Information Group. He said he saw roughly 10 people safely leave the hotel before he returned outside and contacted emergency responders, but his role in the rescue effort was not finished.

A flashlight shining from one of the hotel windows suddenly caught his attention. The light suggested that someone might still be trapped inside as flames and smoke made conditions increasingly dangerous.

“Our assumption is that there’s probably a person there,” Martinez said. “We can’t go through the door anymore because it’s engulfed in flames. We’re going to try the window.”

Martinez and several other people attempted to reach the individual through the window, but intense smoke and heat forced them back. Even then, the Marine and the assisting bystanders did not simply abandon the effort.

“We decided to rip off the wall,” Martinez said. “That’s when local [police] came with their wooden pry bar, and then we started ripping off the wall.”

Firefighters later entered the damaged hotel and removed an unconscious 55 year old man from Osaka prefecture, according to the police spokesman.

Authorities did not immediately provide additional details about the man’s condition.

The fire continued burning for several hours before crews completely extinguished it at 7:19 a.m. Police said the cause remains under investigation, and officials are still working to establish the full sequence of events surrounding the emergency.

Local authorities are also determining how many people, including United States personnel, participated in the rescue and evacuation effort.

An Okinawa city police spokesman said one person associated with the United States military was transported to a military hospital but was not injured.

The incident offered a sharp demonstration of the instincts the Marine Corps works to build into its troops.

When confusion, flames and frightened occupants created a dangerous situation, Martinez moved toward the threat and concentrated on getting people out alive.

His response also reflected the enduring bond between American service members and the Japanese communities surrounding United States installations on Okinawa.

Rather than hesitate over jurisdiction or personal risk, Martinez worked alongside local residents, police officers and firefighters as the emergency unfolded.

Martinez said his decision came down to how he would hope another person might respond if he were the one trapped inside a burning building.

It was a straightforward standard rooted in personal responsibility, courage and duty to one’s neighbor.

“Jump towards action; don’t be a bystander,” he said. “If your neighbor needs help, help them.”

That message is not complicated, but it carries weight in an age when too many people reach for a phone before offering a hand.

Martinez saw danger, recognized that sleeping guests might never wake up without warning, and acted like a Marine.

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