British-born US police officer honoured for pulling woman from burning car
A British man who works for police in the US has been recognised for his role in saving a woman's life.
Detective Chris Godby, 31, who was born in Liverpool and raised in Great Sankey, Warrington, is one of the "officers of the month" with the Grand Prairie Police in Texas after pulling a woman from a burning car with two colleagues.
Video footage of the incident shows the officers dragging the unconscious woman out through the window of the car to get her away from the flames.
Detective Godby, who moved to the US in 2007, will be honoured alongside his two colleagues, receiving "the lifesaving bar for their courageousness", according to the police force's Facebook page.
Recalling the incident, which took place just before midnight on September 14, Detective Godby told the Press Association: "I didn't really have any time to react to it because I get out of my car and I can smell gas.
"At the time I didn't realise that she had hit a gas main. People watch police videos and they say what they would have done differently.
"The reality is you have a second to make a decision on what you're going to do.
"And I see one of my guys trying to get her out of the car and he can't get her out of the car, so my first reaction was to go and pull her away from the car and get away from it myself as soon as possible.
"But unfortunately her leg got stuck in the steering wheel, so it took us a little bit of time to get her out. And I'm not sure if you can tell from the video but the vehicle kind of explodes within 10 seconds of pulling her out."
Asked if she would have been killed if the officers had not pulled her out on time, he said: "Yeah, she probably would have."
Talking about the recognition he has received for his actions, he said: "It's always an honour to get any kind of award, but I feel like there's police officers across the United States and across the world that are doing things like this on a daily basis, and we don't do these things for the awards.
"We all took the same pledge to protect and serve, and if I was put in that situation again I'd do the exact same thing, knowing that the car could probably explode. It's nice to be recognised."
Detective Godby said he signed a professional football contract when he was younger and thought that was what his career would be, but his life was to take a different direction.
"One minute you feel like you've got everything figured out and then you get called into the dressing room and they tell you they're not going to continue with your contract.
"But then I had a decision to make, and I've always wanted to be a police officer, but I was still young," he said.
The detective said he started working for a company that paid for him to study and he worked in a science lab for three years.
"If I didn't move to the United States when I was so young I'd probably be a police officer back home right now," he said.
