Police Rescue Residents From Burning House in New York's Erie County

Body-worn camera footage released by police captured the dramatic rescue of a family trapped in their burning home early Friday morning, September 3, in Cheektowaga, New York.

Police said units responded to reports of a fire on a lower-level apartment on Preston Road in Cheektowaga, east of Buffalo, just after midnight on September 3. Upon arrival, officers encountered four people on a second-floor balcony, residents of the upper apartment stranded by thick smoke below, police said.

Video shows officers using a police cruiser to get all four residents and their small dog off a balcony, down onto the roof of the cruiser, and onto the ground safely.

“You’re not going to fall, man. We got you,” one officer says to the first person lowered from the balcony onto the vehicle’s roof.

“We want to recognize Officers William Cookfair, Brendan Tomasulo, Joshua Donovan, and Jeffrey Scaglione for their heroic lifesaving actions that went beyond the call of duty,” the Cheektowaga Police Department wrote on Facebook. Credit: Cheektowaga Police Department via Storyful