THOMASVILLE — It could have been a lot worse.

Thomasville Fire Rescue’s firefighter Meghan Moore made this statement about the fire that resulted in a serious burn injury which side-lined her from full duty for five months.

“It definitely could have been a lot worse,” she said. “I’m thankful it was just my hand and no one else got hurt. I love my job, I love what we do, what we stand for, and I’m excited to be back on full duty.”

Moore, 21, of Boston, was released June 5 from her Augusta doctors and told she could go back to full duty.

“I was so excited, when I walked out of the doctor’s office in Augusta, the first thing I did was call my dad,” she said. “I just got this really great piece of news, had the paper in my hand and almost started crying when I told him. The next person I called was Chief (Bryan) Croft, as it was my two-year anniversary with Thomasville Fire Rescue, and he was just as excited as me.”

Moore spoke of the night she received the injury while responding to a residential house fire.

“We were fighting a structural residential fire around 10 p.m. and something happened to make the house flash over while we were inside,” Moore recalled. “We were talking about it the other day and still don’t know exactly what caused it. I was with two of the guys and we were trying to get out. In the scramble, one of my gloves came off. It wasn’t faulty equipment or anyone’s fault — it just got snatched off with us trying to get to the front door.”

Her first reaction was to scream.

“When the glove came off, I screamed,” she said. “That was my initial reaction. I screamed so loud, to this day, the guys that were on scene with me say they will never forget it. Then, my reaction was to make a fist and stick it in the sleeve of my jacket. Everybody asked what made me do it and it was a natural instinct to protect what was hurting.”

The back of Moore’s left hand primarily had third-degree burns (with some second degree) from her wrist to the ends of her fingers. She was immediately transported to Archbold, where the decision was made to send her to Augusta. This happened in a matter of hours and, by early the next morning, she was in surgery to clean up the wound and wrapped it to keep it moist.

“They wanted to see what my skin would do so they sent me home,” Moore said. “Because it was so fresh they really couldn’t see how much damage there was. I went to Augusta for at least two months straight every week. I had to have a skin graft where there were third-degree burns on my hand because the skin would not grow back itself. They took a piece from my thigh and put it on my hand to try to help re-generate new skin.”

This “went really well,” Moore said, and, with everything healing nicely and her having full range of motion and feeling in her hand, she was cleared to return to full duty.

“Everyone really helped out with anything I needed,” she said. “I thank my family, friends, loved ones and fellow firefighters for their support.”

Moore admitted the recovery process was hard, but she kept thinking positive thoughts.

“It was really hard, but I kept telling myself ‘I’m glad it was just my hand, glad that it wasn’t anything else other than that,’” she said. “I tried to look at the positive things: it wasn’t life-threatening, I didn’t have an infection, I still had all my fingers. I took it one day at a time, but it was frustrating. With the skin graft, I couldn’t go into public places for risk of infection; I had to stay in my house for two weeks!”