BOLIVAR, Mo. — Two Bolivar police officers were commended for saving a woman from a burning apartment early June 5.
“I can’t think think of a training that would have prepared me for that,” said Bolivar Police Corporal Mark Morris. He said adrenaline and quick thinking helped him and Officer Timothy Stillings get the woman out of the apartment when they were the first to arrive on the scene.
“I kicked the door open,” Morris said. “Immediately. A lot of smoke started coming out of it, and it was pretty much filled except for six inches from the floor.”
Morris said Stillings then laid down and started to shine a light under the smoke to get the woman to come out to them, but she stopped responding shortly after they started communicating with her. They then entered the smoke.
“I was choking pretty hard on the smoke, never having been exposed to that much smoke at once in one sitting,” Morris said.
The two officers were able to pull the woman out of the apartment, who was taken to a hospital and is expected to recover. The city of Bolivar awarded the two officers with its second-highest honor, the Meritorious Service Award.