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An 8-year-old boy who leaped from a second-story window to a police officer during a house fire in New Jersey on Monday is recovering.
Officer Dewitt Bacon, 33, heard the child crying for help in the early morning hours and recounted during a press conference the day after the fire what happened next.
“So intially I run to the back window. I try to just get eyes on him, so I yell to him to get the window, he gets to the window, and at this point I am thinking I have to get him out of there,” he said, according to the Asbury Park Press. “The fire is going, it is smoking, just break it out. Break the window as fast as you can and try to get through.”
The child’s mother rushed home during the emergency from work, the paper reported.
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A local resident, Officer Bacon and one additional Asbury Park police officer, John Walsh, were recognized for helping rescue the child at a press conference the day after the fire at city hall.
“As APFD members were arriving with just nine firefighters on duty — a Battalion Chief, truck company, engine company, and ambulance — Asbury Park Police Officers Walsh and Bacon acted decisively, rescuing a child trapped inside by catching him as he leapt from a second-floor window,” Asbury Park Firefighters Union wrote on its Facebook page.
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“This is the second child rescued from a house fire in Asbury Park in just over a year — a powerful reminder of the life-saving importance of rapid response, adequate staffing, and regional cooperation,” it continued.
Photos shared from the scene by the firefighters union show heavy, red flames and thick, black smoke billowing from the home.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by police and two local fire departments.
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