A house fire in Milan leads to a heroic rescue
MILAN, Tenn.– A house fire in Milan resulted in the apparent total loss of a home and the incredible story of how three Milan police officers pulled a man from the blaze and resuscitated him on the scene. Body camera footage courtesy of the Milan Police Department shows the moment Sgt. Brian Bennett, Patrolman Cory Damron, and Patrolman Travis Smith arrived on scene.
“All three of us ran over to the back side of the house because you could see people outside and they were screaming that there’s somebody still in the house, somebody’s still in the house,” said Sgt. Brian Bennett with the Milan Police Department.
It was at this moment when Patrolman Damron kicked the back door open and crawled inside the smoke-filled house.
“When I kicked the door in, initially, the only way I can describe it is a blanket of black, there was no visibility no anything,” said Damron.
Damron told us he found the man unconscious near the doorway. The three then began to work on trying to remove the man inside, with Damron on his knees inside the burning home, Sgt. Bennett behind him holding onto him, and Smith assisting the pair. Damron at one point even having to back away to catch his breath.
“So the issue we were having is he was perpendicular to the doorway so once Patrolman Damron, kind of positioned him so we could pull him out, once he was positioned that way, that’s when me and Bennett actually pulled him out to the back patio,” said Smith.
Once out on the back patio, the trio picked the man up and took him out to the yard away from the house.
“I think we were still on the porch and Damron here checked to see if he even had a pulse, and he didn’t have a pulse at all. So, when we got him downstairs, he got down and started doing CPR,” said Bennett.
Damron switched out with Smith to continue CPR, which would prove effective when the man started breathing again. They would then switch to a chest compression band. This is when EMS arrived on scene and took over.
“Firefighters showed up maybe a minute or two after we were there and then EMS showed up maybe three or four minutes after them, but they all got there quick,” said Bennett.
Wednesday, the three received the lifesaving award from the Milan police department for their heroic rescue. We asked the trio if they felt like heroes.
“That’s what our job is. That’s what we get paid to do. When you sign up for this job you’re going to do things you don’t want to do, and you’re doing it for a reason, because you want to help the public,” said Bennett.
“It’s clear that they were following their training and it’s what they do. They obviously don’t do this job for the pay or that type of thing, it’s because they want to serve and help people and there’s no better way to help someone than to save a life,” said Chief Bobby Sellers.
The victim was transported to a local hospital and then airlifted to Regional One in Memphis and we’re told he’s responding to treatment.
