It wasn't just some house fire. It literally EXPLODED.
Columbia Police Corporal Allan Ervin gets the Hero Spotlight for this story.
A Columbia Police officer is being hailed a hero after he risks his own life to pull a woman from an exploding home.
It happened Early Friday morning when a home on Rinks Circle in the Riverside neighborhood caught fire and oxygen tanks inside the house begin exploding.
Columbia Police Corporal Allen Ervin was first to arrive at the scene. As soon as the 12-year veteran got out of his cruiser, his body cam recorded a major explosion.
Despite falling debris and the possibility of more explosions, Ervin raced toward the danger. As he approached through the haze, the officer found three people outside the home, frantically pointing inside the entry way of the burning home.
With little regard for his own wellbeing, the Columbia officer goes into the house and finds 37-year-old April Chumley lying near the front door. Neighbors tell News 2 that the woman is severely disabled, non-communicative, and incapable of escaping the inferno on her own.
Corporal Ervin grabbed hold of the woman and pulled her to safety, saving her life.
Ervin's body-cam footage shows the moments just before entering the house. However, police stopped the video before Ervin entered the home "[d]ue to the condition of the rescued woman and its graphic nature."
Callie Braden, a neighbor for 15 years, said she has been bringing food to the next-door family multiple times a week. Before the explosion, she said she was planning to take food that same day.
"I usually go over there every Tuesday evening or Friday lunchtime to bring them food and I said, ‘Lord, you spared me. You knew what was on the other side of the walls there, and I didn't,'" Braden said.
"I was just praying, ‘Lord, did they get out?' Because it was so explosive."
Police said the "cause of the fire is still under investigation."
Corporal Ervin is a certified HERO!
