By Andrew Marra, The Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Police officers rescued three men from a home engulfed in smoke early Friday morning after a car chase led them to a dead-end street where they noticed the burning smell.
The officers found three men asleep in the house at 721 21st St. in West Palm Beach, and smoke so thick they couldn’t see across a room with a flashlight.
Louis Morris, 42, wouldn’t stir when shaken, so Sgt. Ron Manuel dragged him out by his arm. Other officers who canvassed the house found a 22-year-old man and a 62-year-old man in rear bedrooms and were able to wake them.
Medics examined all the men at the house and deemed them OK, Manuel said. But as thick as the smoke was, police say they would not have fared well if they had been in much longer.
“They would have died,” Manuel said. “There is no question at all in my mind.”
The cause of the smoke turned out to be a pot of spaghetti that Morris placed on the stove before falling asleep, according to a police report.
The officers wouldn’t even have been nearby if they had not attempted to stop a driver who fled down 21st and ran from his car, Manuel said. One officer smelled the smoke and noticed it pouring from the house as they were returning to their cars after catching the fugitive.
“The odds of us being on that street in that location have got to be astronomical,” Manuel said.
The officers who entered the home with Manuel were William Dames, Chuck Branch and Marcus McIntosh.