BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — Body camera footage captured the intense moments police officers in Boynton Beach smashed through the front door of a burning home and rushed to the rescue of the family inside.
Boynton Beach Police Officer Daniel Montoute-Howard and his partner, Sgt. Widy Jean, responded to the scene of the blaze along Azalea Circle, Wednesday night.
Montoute-Howard’s body camera shows the officer did not hesitate for a minute as he burst through the front door.
The officer said he first saw the homeowner, Shenese Bryant, unconscious on the couch.
“Ma’am, come on. The house is on fire. Come on,” Montoute-Howard is heard saying to Bryant.
Montoute-Howard said he then turned to his partner.
“I said, ‘You take her,’ and I could hear on the radio that ‘I can see kids in the window,’ so I knew they were still upstairs,” he said, “so from there, I ran upstairs.”
Jean threw Bryant over his shoulder and carried her outside to safety.
Meanwhile, Montoute-Howard went deeper into the burning home and climbed up the stairs to rescue the homeowner’s 19-year-old daughter and two granddaughters, ages 5 and 6.
In the end, everyone was able to make it out alive.
Cameras captured Bryant on Thursday as she returned to the charred house.
Despite the damage to her house, Bryant said she couldn’t be more thankful that Montoute-Howard and Jean answered her family’s calls for help.
“There’s no words,” she said as she slowly shook her head.
Montoute-Howard, who has been on the force for four years, said this was the first time he encountered a fire like this.
He said he’s grateful it ended the way it did.
“The firefighters were taking great care of them. I saw them carrying the kids on their shoulders and stuff, and they had teddy bears and everything else,” he said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Bryant said she spotted flames coming from a kitchen garbage can right before the blaze started.
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