Officer Drew Cook was on patrol when he spotted the flames. The a 12 and a half year veteran of the force and the father of six called the fire in.
Then he bolted toward the house.
"I didn't even go through the formality of knocking on the door and announcing myself. If there's a fire, I have to get whoever's in there out or make sure there's nobody unconscious inside," Cook said. "So I just opened the screen door and I kicked the door open."
Inside was 87-year-old Emma Mecum, a great grandmother confined to a wheelchair after a stroke. She had no idea her garage was on fire and that soon her house would be, too.
Officer Cook wheeled her out of the house.
Emma, who was alone in the house at the time, was uninjured and is grateful Officer Cook was there to rescue her.
"Thank you... Not for tearing down my door, but for letting me know there was a fire and getting me out of there!" Emma said to her rescuer.
While some might call his actions heroic, Officer Cook says what he did was all in a day's work for a cop on patrol.
"It was an extraordinary day, but it's nothing extraordinary that I did," Cook said. "Anybody else would have done the same thing."
