News: Woman Rescued by Police Officer
(Long Island, N.Y.) Today’s headlines have made a legend out of a heroic Suffolk County Police Officer who has been credited with saving a woman’s life. The incident involved a raging house fire and the excellent coaxing abilities of the officer, who eventually persuaded the woman to jump from her rooftop. Experts on the case have claimed that the woman was lucky to have leaped from the flames alive.
The incident occurred on Seaman Neck Road in Dix Hills and the roof was an estimated ten-to-twelve feet high. The assistant fire chief at the Dix Hills Fire Department claimed that he heard someone was on the roof via the official police radio on his way over to the scene of the fire. He stated that he expected the worst for the fate of those trapped inside.
The woman was alone in the house; her mother and thirteen-year-old son were vacationing in India. An estimated seventy-five volunteer firefighters responded to the incident from four different departments. Members of the Dix Hills, Commack, Melville, and Greenlawn Fire Departments all assisted in extinguishing the rampant scene of flames.
The fire took about forty minutes to bring under control and the incident occurred at roughly fifteen minutes to three in the morning. The thirty-seven-year-old woman claimed to have gone to sleep around thirty minutes past midnight and had awakened from the onset of her smoke alarm. She then proceeded to call emergency services and exited to the roof after climbing out of her bedroom window.
Reports stated that a Suffolk County Police Officer from the Second Precinct persuaded the woman to jump. She claimed that she was scared to go through with it and that the officer had to ask her three or four times before she complied. After assuring that he would catch her, the officer waited for the woman’s trust to supersede her fear before delivering on his promise.
In a leap of faith, the woman plunged from the top of her two-story home and into the officer’s embrace. After a safe landing, both were brought to Huntington Hospital and treated for minor injuries. The heroic police officer was treated for a hurt shoulder and the brave woman was treated for smoke inhalation.
The house was destroyed after being completely engulfed in the flames. Reports stated that the garage, kitchen, and surrounding rooms were entirely leveled and that the fire had caused the floor to give out. The severe damage has led several experts at the scene to consider the incident as a big fire, one with a heightened capacity for destruction.
The woman claimed that she couldn’t see anything but black smoke when she woke from her slumber. The incident is being investigated by the Suffolk County Police Arson Squad. It is also being examined by the Town of Huntington Fire Marshall.
