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Jul 3, 2009 4:24 pm US/Central
Farmers Branch Cop Saves Man In House Fire
FARMERS BRANCH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Ed Jerome did not know that his house was on fire. But quick action by a Farmers Branch police officer, who happened to be in the right place at the right time, helped save the sleeping resident's life.
The incident happened just after 3:00 a.m. Friday morning in the 3100 block of Brookhaven Club Drive in Farmers Branch. "It's a rude awakening for the police to knock on your door at 3 o'clock in the morning to tell you your house is on fire," said Jerome.
At first, Jerome said he was not going to answer the door. But it was Officer Travis Rose. "I saw the police car," Jerome recalled, "and the policeman was screaming, 'The house is on fire!' So, then I moved pretty quickly to get out."
Officer Rose was just passing by the home while on patrol. "He knocked on the door and told the resident the house was on fire," explained Farmers Branch Fire Department chief Kyle King.
The fire started in the garage, which is what got Officer Rose's attention. It was relatively small at first, but the house was filled with smoke by the time Jerome was awake.
Next door, night owl Claire Erdman was still awake. She had no idea who was rushing into her neighbor's yard. "The smoke was so bad in his house," she explained. "He had to get out, in a hurry, or he would not have made it."
"I actually started to go into the kitchen to grab my wallet," Jerome told CBS 11 News, "and the guy said, 'You're not going in there,' because by that time it was full of smoke. And, you just grab whatever you got and you go out the door."
"I didn't realize, I guess, the seriousness of the situation until it was all over," Jerome continued.
CBS 11 News was unable to reach Officer Rose on Friday, as he was on duty all day. "We thanked him. We said, 'You saved his life,'" Erdman recalled. "He was quite humble."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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