Police officer saves man inside burning house in Bucks County

WARMINSTER, Pa. (WPVI) -- A brave first responder risked his own life to try and save another.

It was a police officer who first noticed a house on fire early Friday morning in Warminster. But instead of waiting for help, he ran toward the inferno and was able to pull the badly injured homeowner away from the flames.

Warminster Police Officer Andrew Simkiw was on patrol, working the overnight shift when he started to smell smoke around 12:30 Friday morning.

Officer Simkiw tells Action News, "I checked the area several times. When I made the right turn onto Newtown Road that's when I noticed an orange glow coming from inside the residence behind me."

Officer Simkiw ran up to the house and discovered the homeowner, 56-year-old Robert Hill, unconscious on the front porch.

He called for backup.

"Now the windows were starting to pop as the fire was progressing. We got him across the street and continued CPR. The whole time we were doing CPR," Officer Simkiw explained.

Simkiw and another officer continued CPR until an ambulance arrived, saying they were able to restore a pulse.

Warminster Police Chief Jim Donnelly says the department does CPR training every two years for situations like this one.

Chief Donnelly explains, "We try to help people in their time of distress and as the officer said, the training just clicks in."

Police say the fast moving blaze was ruled accidental by the fire marshal, having started in the kitchen.

A firefighter was also taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, and a police officer needed five stitches on his hand from breaking a window while checking for other occupants of the house.

Folks who heard about the fire were impressed with Officer Simkiw's actions.

Holland, Pa. resident Monica Mercurio said, "You have to help people. We're all here for each other."

Hill's family members tell me he was flown from Abington Memorial Hospital to Temple University Hospital's burn unit with burns to his shoulder and inside his lungs. They say he is fighting for his life this evening.