By Patrick M. O’Connell and Terry Hillig
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Five people asleep in two separate burning buildings were saved by police officers alert enough to spot fires and brave enough to go inside, officials said Monday.
The first case, Sunday morning, involved three St. Louis County police officers who twice went into a smoke-filled house in Mehlville to rescue a couple and their adult son who slept through sounding smoke detectors.
In the second, a Southern Illinois University Edwardsville police officer roused two residents from a flaming eight-unit campus apartment building where smoke detectors weren’t working because of a power outage.
Fire officials said the circumstances suggest police likely saved lives both times.
County Officers Tony Amaro and Nicholas Nazzoli spotted a house’s roof in flames about 3:30 a.m. Sunday in the 1000 block of Druso Lane, a few blocks off Interstate 55 near Lemay Ferry Road. Nobody answered the door.
Joined by Officer Stephanie Percich, they kicked in the front door and crawled through heavy smoke to find a couple, both 49, and led them to safety.
Told the couple’s 19-year-old son might still be inside, the officers re-entered the house and awakened him. Percich said the teen was so disoriented that he wrapped himself in a blanket and initially resisted police.
“From the time we opened the door, it was pretty smoky and we had to crawl to be able to breathe,” Percich said. On their second trip, “it was just a whole lot of smoke and we couldn’t see anything. We had to feel our way along the wall just to get out.”
She said the residents had no serious injuries, and the officers had only scratches.
“I feel like that was what needed to be done, and that’s what we did,” Percich said. “I would hope that other people out there would do the same thing.”
Mehlville Fire Chief Tim White said the blaze started in the garage, but its cause was undetermined. He said it’s not uncommon for slumbering people to fail to hear smoke alarms, which is why experts recommend one in every bedroom.
“It’s sad it happened,” he said, “but the good news is that the fire was stopped and the people were rescued by the quick-thinking police officers.”
At SIUE, university police policy is that an officer remain at Cougar Village, a group of apartment houses, whenever the power is out. Officer Dan Murphy had that duty when he spotted smoke and flames from a roof about 12:08 a.m. Monday.
He said he shouted and banged on all eight doors without hearing a response. Because SIUE is between semesters, he had no idea whether anyone was there.
Murphy said he was leaving when he heard the two residents, who had been asleep moments before, fleeing behind him. They were unhurt. Murphy said there’s no way to know how much of a role he played in saving them. But he said from that point they had only a minute or two to get out.
SIUE spokesman Greg Conroy said the fire, which may have been started by lightning, heavily damaged the building.
Edwardsville Fire Chief Brian Wilson said smoke detectors did not sound because a storm had interrupted the power since about 4 p.m. He credited the officer - and the safety protocol that put him there.
“This policy, along with the alert observation and quick action by Officer Murphy, saved two lives,” Wilson said. “Had it not been for the requirement that he remain in the area, Officer Murphy could have been anywhere on the vast campus at the time of the fire.”
Conroy said university has made alternative arrangements for the 30 people who planned to live in the building once the fall semester begins Aug. 24.
Copyright 2009 St. Louis Post-Dispatch