Body camera footage released by Dunwoody police this week shows a wall of black smoke billowing out of the door of a burning house Sunday just as an officer kicks it in.
The officers were first to arrive at the home on Wilder Court around 3:45 a.m. after the victim’s wife, who is in her 90s, called 911 to report the blaze, according to police.
She met officers outside the house after she’d locked herself out, Dunwoody police spokesman Sgt. Michael Cheek said. Her husband, who is also in his 90s, was still inside.
A few minutes later, the footage shows another officer, Eric Haviland, making his way through the front door and finding the man lying on the floor.
“Get over here! He’s over here!” Haviland yells to his partners.
Sgt. Josh Sanders, who kicked in the first door, and Officer Will Smith run over to help pull the man out and begin life-saving measures until medical personnel arrive.
“It’s really just instinctive at this point,” Sanders told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a statement. “We all take this job, put on the badge and realize we can be put in dangerous situations. We are first responders — we try to (be) there first and make the best decision possible.”
The injured man was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, a DeKalb County fire official said. As of Thursday, he was stable, Dunwoody police said.
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