YORK TOWNSHIP, Ohio — An Ohio woman is lucky to be alive after she was pulled from her burning home by first responders.
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Around 10:54 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, crews from multiple departments responded to reports of a house on fire on Branch Road in York Township Ohio.
Dramatic body camera footage shared on the Medina County Sheriff’s Department’s Facebook account shows deputies and firefighters rushing to the home.
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The beginning of the video shows smoke billowing into the sky as Medina County Sheriff’s Office personnel drive up to the house. By the time responders arrived, the detached garage was completely engulfed in flames.
A 31-year-old woman was trapped in the basement of the house, according to a release from the Sheriff’s Office. As crews tried to figure out how to rescue the woman, the fire spread to the house.
Crews were able to find a small window into the basement. In the video, first responders can be heard telling the woman to stand back as they broke the window with a hammer.
The video then shows firefighters and deputies attempting to pull the woman out of the basement, but struggling to get her all the way out.
“That’s when the Medina Fire Chief Larry Walters made the heroic decision to enter the basement and was able to then boost her out,” Erhrt-York Township Fire Chief Jason Creamer told CBS affiliate Cleveland 19 News.
During the rescue attempt, other firefighters can be seen using fire extinguishers to keep the flames at bay as they quickly spread toward the small window.
As the woman is pulled from the building and to safety, she can be heard yelling at firefighters to save her dog. Unfortunately, four of the family’s five animals died in the fire, Cleveland 19 News reported.
The woman was taken to Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital where she was treated and released. Four Sheriff’s Office personnel and two fire officials were taken to Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital and were treated for smoke inhalation and minor injuries and released, according to a release from the Sheriff’s Office.
“This incident serves as a reminder to the critical nature of each component of the safety services environment. Dispatchers, law enforcement and fire personnel all played a vital role in saving the individual from an extremely peril situation,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a joint statement with the Erhart Fire Department.
Nearly a dozen departments responded to the fire, and the investigation will be handled by the Ohio State Fire Marshall. The cause of the fire is undertermined at this time.
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