Tampa Man, 2 Dogs Rescued From House Fire

TAMPA, FL — Four Tampa Police officers and a concerned mail carrier are credited with going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure a 68-year-old disabled man and his two dogs were rescued from a burning home Friday afternoon.

According to the Tampa Police Department, its officers received a call about a residential fire in the 7900 block of North Greenwood Avenue around 1:20 p.m. June 9. Sgt. Larry Bass and Officers Charnele Baker, Richard Caldwell and Peter Sierra were the first to arrive on the scene.

Mail carrier Larry Moss also stopped at the scene and alerted officers that resident Terry Sims, 68, was unable to walk.

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The five rescuers immediately began trying to gain entry into the house, but were unable to. At that point, they knocked out a front window, but still could not enter because “the smoke was dangerously thick and it was virtually impossible to see,” the police department noted in an email to media.

Thinking fast, Brass, a 19-year veteran of the force, grabbed his gas mask and went in through the window. “Minutes later, he brought Mr. Sims to the window,” the agency reported. Sims was handed over to the other offices. Brass then went back into the home to rescue “Tank,” a pit bull, from the fire.

Sierra kicked out an air conditioning unit to make a hole in the home’s wall in an effort to retrieve “Rosie,” Sims’ second dog. Sierra’s attempt was successful, the police department reported.

Tampa Fire Rescue was able to bring the blaze under control by 1:51 p.m., police said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but police say it does not appear suspicious.

Brass, Moss and Sims were all taken to local hospitals to be checked out. Sims, the police department assured, appeared to only have non-life-threatening injuries.

No further information is available at this time.

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Photo courtesy of Tampa Fire Rescue’s Twitter feed