DC police officers save man from burning home in Southeast

The black smoke made the 3300 block of E Street Southeast look like midnight even though it was 3:30pm on Friday.

The fire department was on its way, but D.C. police officer Tevfik Koksaldi was closer.

Someone outside yelled to him that a man was trapped inside and screaming for help.

He located the victim not far from the door, but the man was pinned by debris, trapped and unable to escape deadly smoke.

“I got down low, opened the front door, asked him where he was, and luckily he was actually pretty close to the doorway,” Koksaldi told News4. “He said, ‘Grab my hand,’ so I reached into the smoke, tried to do my best to find him. I held his hand, I tried to pull him out, and that’s when I was screaming for help for my partners that were coming to the scene.”

Help showed up right on time in the form of officers Nellie Carela and Samuel Morgan IV.

“Eyes started watering, I finally was like, ‘Okay, I need to get low,’” Carela said. “[Koksaldi] was already on the ground with the individual that was inside, so I got as low as possible and tried to see something and I could kind of see my partner’s vest over here, so I kind of just like felt for him — he was pushing his way out with the gentleman who was inside.”

Body camera image shows the moment the three officers carried the man outside into fresh air and safety.

He was taken to a local hospital by ambulance to be treated for smoke inhalation.

“You have police instinct, and just as a human, the instinct was to just help someone,” Morgan said.

After the fire was extinguished, firefighters discovered that a dog and four cats had died.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.