A Clovis Police Officer rescued two people from a former Fresno office building on Thursday, Aug. 13. Officer Nathan Jaime was heading eastbound on Shields Avenue when he came across the blaze that broke out from a building at the intersection of Millbrook and Shields.
“I got to the intersection of Shields and Millbrook, and I see the flames coming from the office building south of Shields,” said Jaime. “There weren’t any police or fire trucks, so I figured I was the first one there.”
Several witnesses had told Officer Jaime that there were people inside the north side of the building.
“I began to run over there, and I noticed that the doorway was boarded from the inside out.”, said Jaime. “You can just see it be knocked around.”
A lady who owned a nearby business had given Officer Jaime a hammer to pry open the boarded up door. After a couple of minutes, Officer Jaime with the help of a few others were able to get two adults out of the building.
“There was approximately a 50-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman that were inside the building.”, said Jaime. “I escorted them out to Millbrook, and was told that there may be somebody around the east side of the building.”
As soon as he went to go check on that side of the building the man and woman had already left the scene, leaving Officer Jaime with uncertainty of their identities.
Clovis Police Chief Curt Fleming praised Officer Jaime for his heroic acts.
“I am very proud of the actions Officer Jaime took while driving through the City of Fresno and observing a fire that had just started. It is very likely due to his fast action to assist on the scene that he saved two people’s lives that were trapped inside the building.”
It is unknown how the fire started, but it’s had continuous incidents in the past.
“I was told after the fact that there’s numerous problems with that building regarding transience,” said Jaime. “The building has also been on fire a couple times prior, but I do not know what started it that day.”