A Florida deputy is being praised for his heroic rescue. The deputy climbed the outside of an apartment building that was on fire to rescue a one-year-old girl early Saturday.
CNN reported that the terrifying scene was captured on the deputy’s body camera.
The baby and her mother were struggling to escape the Isles at East Millenia apartment complex after a fire started, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a news release.
Deputies were called to the scene around 4:15 a.m. and found the mother and baby stranded on a third-floor balcony with flames coming from the apartment, the news release continued.
Deputy William Puzynski climbed to the second-floor balcony, took the one-year-old from her mother, and then lowered her to other deputies on the ground, the video shows.
“Just before climbing up the building, Deputy Puzynski took off his heavy outer ballistic vest – which his camera is attached to – to make it easier for him to climb. It’s an amazing twist of fate that the camera was able to capture what happened next,” the release added.
“When I got here, we saw the building fully engulfed. It was chaos everywhere,” Puzynski stated. After handing the baby to his partners, the deputy was helped down, he told the news outlet.
“Afterwards when the mom came and found me, she actually gave me a hug, so it was rewarding,” he said. “It’s a different feeling. Some nights you go home, and you don’t really know if you’ve made a difference, but in situations like this you feel it.”
Both the baby’s mother and grandmother were rescued using a ladder. There were no casualties reported and no deputies were injured in the rescue, officials said.
