Officer Risks Life To Save Woman’s

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Others run from burning buildings. One man ran inside to save a woman’s life.

NBC 4’s Tom Brockman talked with the everyday hero Thursday.

A home was filled with smoke and fire, and a woman was trapped inside.

The Southeast Side home in the 3000 block of Tylor Drive caught fire a little before midnight Wednesday.

As firefighters rushed to the scene, another public servant arrived—with no fire gear and no oxygen mask.

Officer Adam Clark did what he could to help. And, help he did.

House fires are not uncommon, but Clark’s heroic actions were.

“As I come around this bend in the road, the whole road right here is in engulfed in smoke,“ Clark said.

A Madison Township officer, Clark walked around the boarded up and burned home with Brockman. It was the place where he risked his own life to save another’s.

He said he jumped into his cruiser after he heard reports of a woman with partial disabilities trapped inside her burning home.

He was first to the scene but said he had trouble finding a way inside.

“I wasn’t able to find a gate because it was pretty dark out. So, I jumped this chain-link fence here in the neighbor’s yard and just basically stood on the chain-link fence and climbed over top of the privacy fence here.“

He heard the woman yelling from the first-floor bedroom window.

“I tried to get her to jump out the window. She wasn’t able to jump out the window. So, I had to jump up there and climb into it,“ he said.

The house was engulfed, but he said he never gave it a second thought.

“I picked her up, put her on top of my shoulder, but at that point, I could hear the fire department at the front door, busting down the door. So, I figured they do this every day so they’re probably going to be a little better at it than I am. I just start yelling for them, you know, ‘This is where we’re at! We’re back here!‘ “

Clark and the woman made it out of the unharmed.

“I don’t know if I’d classify myself as a hero. I just classify myself as someone just, obviously, who is doing his job. But, uh, just trying to help someone out in need,“ Clark said.

Investigators told Brockman they believe the fire started in the living room of the house, behind a sheet of plywood, but the exact cause remained under investigation.

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