Video shows police officers rescue 7-month-old baby, others, from burning Indiana home
A trio of Indiana police officers raced into action earlier this week to rescue a family including a 7-month-old baby from the second story of a burning home.
by Admin
May 18, 2023
A trio of Indiana police officers raced into action earlier this week to rescue a family including a 7-month-old baby from the second story of a burning home.
Frankfort Police Sgt. Andrew Snyder, along with officers Madison Douglass and Freddy Martinez, responded within one minute of a 911 call about 2 a.m. Monday reporting a house filled with heavy smoke, police said.
The caller had said they were on the second floor and couldn't get out and that their baby was having trouble breathing.
Flames were coming out of the front of the house, preventing an exit there. Snyder found a ladder and the officers used that to gain access to a second floor window.
"There was a baby that was in a car seat. They were holding the baby out the window and we knew that we had to act very quickly to save the family," officer Freddy Martinez said in an interview on Good Morning America Friday.
"We're coming. We're coming," you can one of the officers tell the family on body camera footage released by the Frankfort Police Department.
The video shows Snyder quickly finding a ladder and climbing up to rescue the baby. “Can I have your kid, can I have your baby?” he asks.
"Please don't drop her," you can hear a man say as he hands the baby over in a car seat.
"I won't," Snyder responds.
The baby's father, Jacob Neal, told GMA that when he tried to open an interior door, "I just got hit in the face with smoke and I seen fire, so panic just set in right away. I shut the door and ran upstairs and got my family in the bedroom."
The parents, baby Aurora and the police officers were reunited recently on the morning show. "Our baby was struggling to breathe," the mother, Elizabeth Crow, told GMA. "I'm very very thankful that they got there to help her out the window and help us, too."
After reviewing the body cam footage, Frankfort Police Capt. Evan Hall said he recommended all three officers for the Medal of Valor. “They all showed an extraordinary act of bravery by removing a total of six occupants out to safety under extreme stress and life-threatening conditions," he said in a message posted on the department's Facebook page.
The Frankfort Fire Department is investigating the fire.
"At the end of the day, we were just doing our job and we were all thankful that we had the results that we did and glad that we could be there to help" Martinez said.
Snyder took the baby from the second story window down to ground level. The mother and father were then rescued through the window and down the ladder. Officers also rescued another family of three living there by banging on their downstairs door and waking them, police said.
