PHOENIX — John Zeto didn’t set out to be a hero after retiring from a decades-long career as a firefighter, but when the moment came, he was as ready to help as he was in the firehouse.
Zeto is a retired firefighter who spent the better part of the last year on Arizona’s toughest hiking trails.
But he doesn’t just go out for the views — he goes to push and test his fitness, following a training plan given to him by a friend with the Phoenix Firefighter Department.
He started on flat trails in cool temperatures and worked his way up to harder treks on hotter and hotter days.
Fortunately for the people he meets while training, he is ready for anything that happens when he’s hiking,
“I’ve been up Camelback over a hundred times,” Zeto told ABC15. “I’ve done CPR on a man. I helped a guy get his wife off the mountain after she broke her tib-fib. I even carry a sprained ankle wrap….not for me, but for the people I run into.”
However, one rescue from May of 2024 has stuck with him and bonded him to a fellow hiking enthusiast.
Zeto was hiking the Superstition Mountains when he stumbled upon a stranger who was collapsed on the ground, alone, and fading fast.
“I had been on a ton of 911 calls,” he said. “ I had been in these situations where I'm watching somebody not doing so well, but I have the support of 911. Out here…it’s me and this guy, and now it's like, ‘There's no way I'm leaving this dude.’”
The stranger was nearly a foot taller than Zito and heavier, but Zeto stayed with him, assessed the situation, and helped guide him to safety.
“He was talking to me, mumbling. I said, so there’s a shot.”
Zeto says he didn’t save the man just with physical strength, but with preparation. He hopes others will think differently before hitting the trails, especially in Arizona’s dangerous summer heat.
“I have no idea why I was prepping for this guy, but I was,” Zito said. “Colt was not supposed to die that day.”
You can see the full story that has gone viral online on Tuesday morning on ABC15 Mornings.
