Body cameras captured the dramatic moments police officers from Madison, Indiana helped rescue a family trapped in a burning apartment building July 3.
A 10-year-old girl is being and her quick-thinking are being credited with saving her family’s lives.
On July 3, around 1 a.m. a fire broke out in a second-floor apartment. Five children, ages three to 13, and their grandmother became trapped.
“The first thing I remember seeing or hearing was glass breaking,” Detective Shawn Scudder told WAVE. “And I knew immediately there was somebody in that apartment up there.”
“At the top of the stairs there was heavy fire, heavy fire at the front door,” Senior Patrolman Josh Nolan said. “So there was no way we could make entry into that apartment. So going out the window was the only option.”
Escape
Authorities observed a 10-year-old girl breaking a second-floor window so her family could escape the inferno.
The officers who responded quickly, due to working crowd control at the nearby Madison Regatta, positioned themselves below the broken window and caught each child as the young girl began pulling her siblings out of the burning building.
“Sometimes you go with it,” Nolan said. “And if it’s running smooth, you stick with it.”
The grandmother also leapt from the second story window.
In a statement on Facebook, the Madison Police Department shared that two of the responding detectives, who are also experienced firefighters, fought the blaze while they waited for firefighters to arrive.
Miraculously no one was injured.
“The results could have been a lot worse,” Nolan said. “We’re just lucky that we had the right day at the right time, as many people working as we did. Things just lined up perfectly.”
“It was one of the most chaotic scenes we’ve ever been on, yet the most seamless response we’ve probably ever had,” Patrolman Phillip Wimpee said. “And I think all of us would agree with that. I can’t recall in my career ever being a part of something that worked out so smoothly.”
What this young girl did was incredibly brave. She saved all of her siblings and her grandmother.
Please share and recognize this girl for her bravery.