As flames erupted in a mobile home in Texas, a police officer ran into the burning building to save a family trapped inside, and it was all caught on camera.
As Cristobal Marin was driving on Monday to pick up feed for his horses in Socorro, a city in El Paso County, he saw a large plume of smoke. Marin told CNN he turned in the direction of the smoke, which was coming from a residential area, to see if he could help. When he arrived, he said an officer wearing a bulletproof vest and face mask was running out of the flames carrying a child.
A video Marin recorded shows Socorro police officer Joshua Gonzalez running toward the mobile home, where thick black smoke and flames were seen coming out of it.
The officer said that the door to the home was hot to the touch and when he entered he found two adults, one who was elderly, and an 8-year-old boy.
“The house was already full of smoke, I could barely breathe and I even advised them, ‘cover your mouths,’ to try to get out as soon as possible safely,” Gonzalez said. “From that point, I grabbed the child and I held him tight in my arms and I ran out with him and got him to the street where there was a couple of neighbors ... to take care of him.”
The other two adults inside the home were brought to safety, Gonzalez said, by an off-duty firefighter who was on the scene. The boy didn’t suffer any injuries, according to KVIA, but the elderly adult was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
They also added that neighbors used their water hoses to help put the flames out until the fire department arrived.
“... thank you to the residents and emphasize that what we saw happen yesterday was an example of friends and neighbors helping one another under extreme circumstances,” the police statement said.
The rescued boy told Gonzalez on the scene that he was really sad his football cleats were lost in the fire, according to KVIA. The officer offered to buy him new ones.
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