Officer Charles Sanford works for the Bastrop Police Department and was the first on scene of the apartment fire that broke out January 5th, “I get a call about a fire from dispatch and they let me know that a woman was trapped inside and she could see flames. Everyone’s like, there’s a lady in the building and I am like okay, I am getting there.”
Officer Sanford said he had been to that complex before so he knew the woman struggling to get out of the burning apartment. He said he knew she just had surgery and was using a walker. “I go up to the window and I can just see smoke, it was extremely hot, so I was just telling the female come to me.”
Not only was the woman still in the apartment, so was a dog. “I seen the dog was in there, so I got the dog, picked up the dog, put it in the yard.” Sanford said the heat and smoke were quickly taking over the apartment and the woman was still inside, “I was really concerned cause I couldn’t see her, and everytime I tried to get in there, it was just overwhelming with the smoke, I couldn’t breathe, so I was like ‘Oh man how are we going to get to her?’”
Bastrop Fire Chief Mark Wobus said the cause of the fire was accidental, the woman fell asleep smoking and her chair started on fire. He also said the woman ended up in the San Antonio Burn Unit for several days to be treated for minor burns and respiratory issues, but she has since been released and is okay.