A Kalamazoo public safety officer risked his life trying to save a senior citizen from a seventh-floor apartment fire.
Officer Bryan Martin told NEWSCHANNEL 3 that he saw a 74-year-old woman screaming for help from the balcony of the senior housing complex and noticed that all the firefighters had already gone inside. They were busy rescuing about 200 frail and elderly occupants and escorting them to awaiting warming buses.
With only a couple of command officers and no firefighters available, Martin told his commander that he was going up an aerial to try to save the woman. Martin and another officer began ascending the ladder. When he made it to the platform, he realized his partner didn’t make it to the top. She had suffered an injury and headed back to the ground.
Martin then made the choice to attempt to rescue the woman alone, he told the television station. He couldn’t get the woman to safety on his own so he spent several minutes shielding the woman from smoke and flames with his own body. Reports that the flames billowing out of the apartment were about 2,000 degrees.
Officer Martin says he knew he couldn't hoist the woman to safety on his own, so he spent the next several minutes shielding her from the smoke and flames, with his own body.
Martin told the television station he ran out of air in his air pack and had to climb back down for another bottle. He went back up to finish the job and rescued the woman with help of other officers.
The woman,74-year-old Barbara Posey, die on the way to the hospital suffering a heart attack.
Martin, a third-generation officer, said he watched his father and grandfather make similar decisions in there career
“I’ve got children of my own and I want them to be just as proud of me,” Martin told the television station.
The American Red Cross helped the victims of the fire, the cause of which remains under investigation.
