PEORIA, Ariz. — An amazing rescue caught on bodycam video after a Peoria house fire traps a man on his second-story balcony.
The homeowner, Brett, tells ABC15 he wouldn’t be here if it weren't for the Peoria Police Department officer’s quick thinking.
“Chaos. Complete and utter chaos,” Brett said when asked to describe what he went through.
Brett says it happened around 4:00 in the morning.
He was feeding his 22-year-old cat, Sabrina, who he says is deaf. Then suddenly, his fire alarms went off.
Brett says he is hopeful his cat ran off but won’t know for sure until he is allowed back inside his home.
He says it all happened so fast. The alarms prompted him to grab fire extinguishers.
“And [I] went through all my fire extinguishers.”
Before he knew it, the electricity gave out.
He says there was smoke and fire everywhere.
“It’s something you’d never think would happen to you,” he told ABC15.
He found himself trapped upstairs. At that point, his only move was to run toward the balcony.
“Ripped through the screen, and went on the balcony, started calling for help,” he said.
That’s when Officer Kyle Trouton’s quick thinking came into play.
“He remains calm, and he goes into the backyard, through the side yard, and opens the gate. He goes back, and there’s a guy on a second-story balcony kind of hanging from it. Waiting to jump off but wasn’t jumping off-- so he encouraged him,” said Sergeant Brandon Sheffert, with the Peoria Police Department.
In the video, Officer Trouton can be heard saying, "I got you. I got you. Just land on me, bro...you’re good.”
Sergeant Sheffert says that’s what officers are trained to do.
“When I talked to him about this, he basically just said, 'this is what we do. I didn’t really do anything special.' He said-- 'I was just in the right place at the right time,'” added the sergeant.
ABC15’s crew showed Brett the body cam video for the first time. This is what he said after it played to its entirety.
“It’s just surreal at this point, you know,” said the homeowner.
Aaron Wax lives next door to Brett.
He called the police when he noticed there was fire coming out of his neighbor’s home.
“It kind of looked like Inferno. You could feel the heat and smell the smoke,” said Wax.
That’s when he says he ran out to see if Brett was still inside.
“That was one of the most interesting early wake-ups I’ve ever had,” the neighbor added.
Here’s Brett's message to Officer Trouton:
“Thanks for hustling and not thinking of yourself first. You know. Putting yourself in harm's way to help someone else. I really appreciate that. And hope I didn’t squish you,” he said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Luzdelia Caballero at KNXV first reported this story.
