Mary Alice Reporting –
The Tuscarawas County Commissioners took time to recognize several New Philadelphia police officers for their heroic actions.
Officers Tristen Lambert and Andrew Boyd, and Sergeant Mitchell Gobley attended Wednesday’s meeting and recounted events of a fire call they responded to a few months ago on Bank Lane.
The initial call was from a neighbor saying that they could hear a woman yelling for help and upon arrival, they encounter an apartment complex with four units on top of a garage and a steep stairwell, explains Officer Lambert.
“I just heard Officer Boyd screaming to everybody else in the building that there was a fire, so I immediately ran upstairs to try to get [another apartment] door open. Got it open successfully and I was very shocked that, whenever I did open the door, the resident was sitting there, watching TV. He had no clue the building was on fire.”
Lambert got the man and a dog outside while Gobley carried a woman to safety. The other two apartments were unoccupied.
All the commissioner’s commended the men for their service to the community with Commissioner Chris Abbuhl noting the bravery of an officer since they go into the unknown on each call.
“We appreciate what you do and it does make a difference. It makes a difference in our community knowing that we’re safe. A lot of times we take those things for granted”
Each police officer received a recognition certificate that noted them going into a burning building and that each were a hero, “defined as conduct exhibiting courage, daring, skill, and self-sacrifice”.
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