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Texas Officer Rescues 8-Year-Old Boy from Burning Home

An officer with the Socorro (TX) Police Department rushed into a mobile home fully engulfed in flames and thick smoke to rescue an eight-year-old boy trapped inside.

July 9, 2020
Texas Officer Rescues 8-Year-Old Boy from Burning Home

Officer Joshua Gonzalezof the Socorro (TX) Police Department rushed into a mobile home fully engulfed in flames and thick smoke to rescue an eight-year-old boy trapped inside.

Credit:

Screen grab of news report.

2 min to read


An officer with the Socorro (TX) Police Department rushed into a mobile home fully engulfed in flames and thick smoke to rescue an eight-year-old boy trapped inside.

According to CNN, Officer Joshua Gonzalez arrived at the scene and asked onlookers standing nearby if they believed there to be people inside. They replied that there might be, and Gonzalez took off running into the home where he encountered two adults—one of them elderly—and the small boy. He ushered the adults out of the building and carried the boy from the fire.

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"The Socorro Police would also like to recognize one of their own, Officer Joshua Gonzalez, who undertook a selfless act, when he entered one of the houses to remove a family that was still located inside," the department said in a statement.

Officer Gonzalez later recounted, "When I arrived to the door it was really hot, and once I made entry I did find that there was two adults inside and a child. The child was 8 years of age and the elderly person was 75. At that point I did advise him, 'let’s go out'."

Gonzalez added, "The house was already full of smoke, I could barely breath and I even advised them, ‘cover your mouths’, to try to get out as soon as possible safely. From that point, I grabbed the child and I held him tight in my arms and I ran out with him and got him to the street where there was a couple of neighbors and sat him down and advised them (neighbors) to take care of him."

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