SAN DIEGO -- Lance Cpl. Ben Webers, an Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting hand lineman, and the rest of his crew were on call to put their training to the test and help local firefighters when an F/A-18D "Hornet" crashed in a local residential area Monday afternoon.

Webers and his crew were waiting on the flight line for the jet to land when they noticed the aircraft begin to veer off course. Then, Webers saw the pilot had ejected from the aircraft moments before it went down.

Almost immediately after the crash, ARFF received a 911 call directing Marines to the crash site.

The crew was on site and battling the blaze within about 15 minutes, added Webers.

"We were only able to get within about fifty feet of the house because of our P-19s," said Webers. "We worked with the San Diego Fire Department to get within range and then went to work."

As soon as the crew arrived, they cleared a path to the house and unrolled their hoses so that a hand-line crew could spray firefighting foam onto the flames. The Marines used the foam instead of water because it smothers flames quickly and also helps reduce the amount of smoke and toxins emanating from fires.

While approaching the fire and then while on scene performing his job, although concerned for civilians, he was never scared of the fire. Rather, was confident in his training.

"We have training burns all the time, so we have no fear of fire," said Webers. "We used everything we learned in school to respond to this crash. We fought a structural fire, used search and rescue techniques and aircraft rescue firefighting. This was a validation of our training."

Although unfortunate, this is what the Marines in ARFF train for every day. Never wanting to put the skills to test but understanding how important the training is.