A Tennessee police officer is being praised for extraordinary bravery after body camera footage captured him running into a burning apartment building to rescue a mother and her two young children.
Officer Rogers of the Chattanooga Police Department was the first to arrive at the scene of a fire at an apartment complex in Hixson on May 1. As smoke and flames poured from the building, frantic neighbors told him people were still trapped inside.
Without hesitation, Rogers rushed through the smoke-filled entrance — even as flames burned near the front door — and made his way inside to find the family.
The dramatic bodycam footage shows Rogers helping Rachel Blaylock and her two children escape the burning apartment. Rogers carried Blaylock’s 4-year-old daughter, Marlowe, to safety while the mother followed behind with her 10-year-old son, Charles, according to local station WTVC.
Blaylock later said she still can’t believe what the officer did to save them.
“I keep thinking back: ‘How was I going to get two kids down the stairs?’” she told WTVC. “He just grabs her [Marlowe], and he was willing to go back in. I was trying to tell him that no one else was there, but he was going back up.”
After helping the family escape, Rogers didn’t stop there.
Bodycam video shows the officer grabbing a fire extinguisher and attempting to fight the flames himself while waiting for firefighters to arrive. Authorities said no one was injured in the blaze.
The Chattanooga Police Department noted that officers are not trained firefighters, but said Rogers embodied the department’s mission to protect the community.
“Thank you Officer Rogers for your bravery and dedication to serving our community. CPD is proud to have exemplary officers like you,” the department wrote in a Facebook post.
The fire, however, destroyed the family’s home and most of their belongings.
A GoFundMe page created for the Blaylock family says the apartment’s smoke alarm never went off and credits alert neighbors who called 911 with helping save lives before the fire spread further.
Watch the dramatic bodycam footage below:
