DELAND, Fla. – A Volusia sheriff’s deputy saved a woman from a burning home late Saturday, and the heroics were captured on bodycam video.
The fire broke out on Palmetto Avenue in DeLand.
The Volusia Sheriff’s Office said Deputy Austin Graham forced his way into the home and found a woman unresponsive on the floor of a smoke-filled hallway.
[VIDEO BELOW: Brush fire in Osceola County]
“There was no thought in my mind that she could be deceased, ‘I’ll just leave her and get out of there.’ I thought if there’s a chance, I have to get her out,” said Deputy Austin Graham.
When Graham first got to the home, he said there were flames flying out of the roof. He called his next move an “educated gamble,” thinking someone had to be inside.
“Everybody was calling in saying, ‘my neighbor’s house is on fire,’ but I never heard anybody calling in saying my house is on fire,” he said.
Graham’s body camera video shows him breaking down the woman’s door to get inside. Despite having no firefighting equipment, protective gear, or even training on running into burning buildings, he went in, pushing past smoke and hard-to-see objects, and eventually found the woman on the floor.
Deputy Graham’s partner, Nathan Vargas, then can be seen running up to the house.
“Before I got there, I asked him, where you at? He said he’s inside, he can’t breathe, so the first thing in my mind is he’s trapped in this house,” said Vargas.
The deputies pulled her out, and then, once in the clear, they said they got a pulse.
“My first thought was, ‘Is she wearing a wedding ring?’ I assumed someone else was in there and I was about to go in again, but at that point, the fire department was there,” said Graham.
Firefighters said she was alone.
The woman was taken to a hospital in serious condition.
Graham said he’ll be forever grateful he took that gamble.
“It paid off. It saved her life, and I’m eternally grateful to God for that,” he said.
Graham was evaluated at the scene for smoke inhalation, but he did not require a trip to the hospital.
Authorities said the fire started in the kitchen and appeared to be accidental.