Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — As police officers and firefighters arrived at a burning home early Tuesday, they found a hysterical mother outside crying that her 3-year-old daughter was still inside.
Within a matter of minutes, officers and firefighters teamed up to go inside the smoke- and flame-filled house, where they rescued the young girl and brought her out to the waiting arms of paramedics who revived her.
"This was truly heroic actions last night that saved the life of a little girl," said Salt Lake interim Police Chief Mike Brown.
Both Brown and Salt Lake Fire Chief Brian Dale spoke Tuesday about how "exceedingly proud" they are of their men and women.
But when asked to recount the events themselves, the firefighters and police officers directly responsible for saving the little girl simply shrugged their shoulders, humbly commenting that they were just doing their jobs. Instead, they focused their attention on the 30 firefighters, officers and emergency dispatchers who helped make the rescue a success.
The fire was reported about 2:10 a.m. at 1109 S. 700 East. A mother called 911, but didn't directly talk to the dispatcher who could still hear her.
"They were screaming that the baby was inside, 'Can you hear me? Can you get to her?' But we had a hard time understanding exactly where the location was," Dale said.
As the dispatcher listened to the woman say things like, "Can you get out? I can't see you. Come to me. I think you're right there," the cellphone was traced to the address so emergency crews could respond.
When firefighters arrived, they found the mother, her boyfriend and her 6-year-old daughter standing outside their burning home.
The fire is under control. Two adults and one child were home at the time of the fire. pic.twitter.com/uCEQiUwgQb
— SLC Fire Department (@slcfire) December 22, 2015"When our firefighters arrived, the two adults were screaming. They were pretty shaken up because the girl was still inside," said Salt Lake fire spokesman Jasen Asay. "The two adults had tried to go back into the house to get her, but they weren't even able to get inside because of the heat and the smoke that was there right as you walk in the door."
Three Salt Lake police officers — Lt. Craig Gleason, Sgt. Bob Eldard and officer James Thornblad — were first to arrive. Flames were shooting from the house on the north side of the structure. Gleason spotted the young girl on the south side of the home in a living room, and then broke one of the windows and reached inside.
"'I used my daddy instinct,'" Brown said Gleason, a father, later told him. "'I was able to feel what I knew was a little girl's hand.' So he reached under the Christmas tree that had toppled over and is able to pull that little girl out from under the tree and is able to pull her right in front of the window."
Officers actually tried to enter the house through the front door, "but the smoke and heat was just too much," Brown said.
Knowing that firefighters were already putting on protective gear, rather than risk further injury to the girl by pulling her through the broken glass, Gleason waited for firefighters to enter and then directed them to her.
When firefighters Brody O'Connor and John Scott went inside the house, they already had a good idea of where to go thanks to Gleason. O'Connor said police probably saved them an extra 30 seconds to a minute of searching.
"As we made entry — very hot. I actually looked up and in the corner of my eye, we still had flames going over the top of us as we entered in that room," O'Connor recalled.
O'Connor turned into the living room, and felt his way along the wall. He found a table with a television on top that he pulled down.
"First I thought maybe it was a crib, maybe a car seat. Then I actually heard somebody yelling, 'She's under the window.' So I immediately went over to the window, saw the child laying there, picked her up and just hurried to the front door," he said.
The young girl was unconscious when O'Connor grabbed her. He said because of where she was located under the window, the air from outside had created a kind of pocket around her so she was easy to spot through the smoke.
O'Connor rushed the girl outside to the waiting arms of a paramedic team who laid her down in the middle of the street.
"As they laid her down there, Craig, in his own words, said, 'I couldn't wait until she took that first breath.' And when she took that breath and he could see the color come back into her face, within his heart he just swelled up with joy," Brown said.
As a firefighter was clearing the girl's airway by sticking a finger in her throat, he was bit hard by the young girl.
"'I could tell it was a hurt of happiness because they knew they had saved this little girl's life,'" Gleason told Brown.
The 3-year-old was taken to a local hospital in serious condition to be treated for "some burns and smoke inhalation," Asay said. The man was also transported to a hospital for smoke inhalation. The mother originally was just riding as a passenger in the ambulance to be with her daughter, but developed undisclosed "complications" when she arrived at the hospital and she was also admitted, he said.
From the time emergency crews were dispatched until the time they got the young girl out of the house and into an ambulance, only six minutes had passed. Dale called that "remarkable," as well as how calm his firefighters were during the rescue.
After 30 firefighters brought the flames under control within 30 minutes. They went back inside the house and discovered a small dog was still trapped inside. Crews took the dog outside and administered oxygen until Salt Lake County Animal Services arrived to take custody of the dog, Asay said.
The cause of the fire was still being investigated Tuesday, but it is believed to have started in a dining area near the kitchen. Asay said Tuesday it was still too early to determine whether the fire was suspicious or accidental in nature. Damage was estimated at between $100,000 and $150,000, he said.
How the 3-year-old became trapped in the house while the two adults and 6-year-old safely made it outside is also being investigated.
Despite the praise they received, all those involved in the rescue remained humble Tuesday.
"'We do this for the people I serve and the badge I wear,'" Gleason told Brown.
After O'Connor and Scott got the little girl out of the house, they turned around and "went right back to work," looking for a fire hose to help battle the blaze.
"That's what we're trained to do," Scott said. "When it comes down to it, we were just focused on the rescue and getting the girl out."
Contributing: Geoff Liesik
