Terrifying video captured the moment sheriff’s deputies in Florida rescued a nine-year-old boy from a burning home.
In a press briefing on Friday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said the two deputies arrived at the home in Seffner at around 10.48pm on Thursday to find it engulfed in flames.
A body camera video shows the deputies running towards the house, where a distraught mother tells them her son Owen was still inside in his bedroom.
The deputies then smash the bedroom window to reach the boy, who had been asleep when the fire broke out. Fire personnel had not yet arrived, the sheriff Chad Chronister said.
“Come over to the light,” sheriff’s deputy Kevin Reich tells the boy, shining his flashlight into the room. “Stick your hands out.”
The deputies were able to pull Owen out of his bedroom window, having heard him crying and coughing amid the smoke.
“So we knew that he was somewhere in that room. It was just a matter of where in the room and how far into the room he was,” said the other sheriff’s deputy, Alexander Maldonado.
Owen was taken to hospital in Tampa and “remains in the hospital in severe condition due to burns and smoke inhalation”, the sheriff’s office said in a press release.
“I couldn’t be more proud,” Sheriff Chronister added. “This child is alive today because of their heroic actions”.
“That dark thick smoke made it impossible for anyone to survive in that room, nonetheless the deputies – you can tell by watching that video – outside that residence, were struggling as they kept stocking their head inside,” said the sheriff.
Firefighters were able to tackle control on the blaze after arriving on scene.
