SHEFFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio (WJW) – A Sheffield Village police officer is being saluted for his efforts to help save two men who were asleep inside their home and unaware it was on fire. 

Patrolman Kevin Bring was driving along East River Road, when he spotted the glow of a fire behind a home.

Officer Bring discovered that embers from a fire pit on a deck had ignited a blaze and it that was spreading to the back of the home.

Armed with a small fire extinguisher, the officer tried to put the flames, but quickly realized that he could not and that anyone inside the home was in danger.

Video from the officer’s body camera shows him opening the front door and calling out to a man sleeping on a couch, “your house is on fire, get out.” 

“Really?” the startled resident asked.

“Yeah,” the officer responded.

“Oh (expletive)!” the man said.

The man ran outside, but his roommate was still asleep in a back bedroom, closest to the smoke and flames.

The patrolman was able to awaken the second resident by pounding on his window, but the man did not seem to understand the danger he was in.

The officer then went back inside the house and convinced the man to get out.

When the man saw the fire, he exclaimed, “oh my God!” perhaps realizing how fortunate he and his roommate were that Patrolman Bring spotted the fire and made sure that they got out of the house.  

“The biggest issue here was the lack of working smoke detectors within the home. So without law enforcement present, would they have ever been notified, would they have found out before it was too late? No doubt in my mind that two lives were saved, due to the actions of Kevin Bring,” said Sheffield Village Police Chief William Visalden.

Investigators say the story illustrates why it’s so important to make sure that fire pits, burn pots and grills are not close to your home or left burning or unattended. 

“Make sure you douse those fires, right, keep them off the porch, away from any structures. Wet them down really good, just make sure that there’s no burning embers. Watch them for a little while, right, sit there for a half hour and make sure it doesn’t spark up again,” said Chief Visalden.

The mayor and council in Sheffield Village plan to honor Officer Bring with a special commendation for his life saving efforts.