MATTYDALE -- Onondaga County Sheriff's sergeants Jeremy Young and Crayg Dykes were only a minute away when they got the call on Sunday around 2:30 pm. A Mattydale house was on fire - and at least one person was believed to be trapped inside.
"The whole drive, you're running through your mind what you're going to do when you get there and you're bracing yourself for the worst and trying to make a plan." Sgt. Dykes said.
As soon as they arrived at 313 Elbow Road, they saw smoke pouring out of the house. The only way they could reach the trapped woman was to go through the kitchen where the fire started.
"When we did get in there, there was a lot of flames and a lot of smoke but we knew what we had to do to get the occupant out of the house." Sgt. Young said.
Young and Dykes crawled into the bedroom and found 96-year-old Nancy Adragna in a hospital bed. The sergeants were able to pass her out a window to her grandson on the outside of the house. Young and Dykes then tried to get out the way they came in.
"We opened the door to go back the way we came and were met with such a thick smoke condition, the flames had intensified at that point, we closed the door and had to move on to plan b." Sgt. Young said.
The sergeants had to squeeze themselves through a small window to escape from the house.
This is the second time in two years Sgt. Dykes has been honored for helping save someone from a burning building. Dykes was honored with a Red Cross Real Heroes award last year for helping rescue four people from a Liverpool house fire in June 2011.
"I'm thankful for having the opportunity to be part of a law enforcement community. Police, fire and public safety - any one of us would have done the exact same thing." said Sgt. Dykes.
