Dramatic bodycam footage shows a group of West Valley City police officers rescuing a man who was trapped on the second floor of an apartment building during a fire Monday morning.
“Come on! Jump! Jump!” officers can be heard shouting to the man, who is seen standing in a second-floor window, the fire burning behind him at the Decker Lake Apartment complex, 2184 W. 3100 South in West Valley City.
Officers drove a cruiser under the window and climbed on top of it, allowing them to reach the man as he dropped into their arms.
Officer Joshua Cook was the first responder at the fire, according to a department news release. Cook banged on doors to notify residents of the fire and tell them to evacuate; he then used his cruiser to knock down a fence and positioned the car next to the building so other officers could stand on it to reach the man.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” Cook told FOX 13.
Footage from another officer, Oscar DeLeon, shows a group of officers urging the man to jump and grabbing him as he puts his legs over the window sill.
“I gotcha! Jump, jump!” DeLeon can be heard shouting to the man. DeLeon told FOX 13 that the man was “older” and was struggling to jump out of the building.
“There are extraordinary and heroic actions on the part of several officers and a WVCPD supervisor,” wrote Roxeanne Vainuku, spokeswoman for the police department.
Five apartments were destroyed in the fire, FOX 13 reported.
Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune and FOX 13 are content-sharing partners.
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