State Police Officer

California State Police

5/4/1991

Special Act Award (Gold)

State Police Officers Brian S. Renfrow and Tony Spates, on May 4, 1991, performed an extraordinary act of heroism at great personal risk to their own safety and lives while assisting the rescue of a five-year-old child trapped inside a burning, smoke-filled apartment. At approximately 8:40 a.m., Officers Renfrow and Spates responded to a report of an apartment fire. Upon arrival at the scene they joined officers from the LAPD who made several unsuccessful attempts to rescue the small child who was trapped inside an upstairs bedroom of the burning apartment. Fire equipment had not arrived at the scene and without the benefit of breathing equipment or special protective clothing normally worn by fire fighters, all four officers made their way to the second floor of the burning apartment. The officers’ search was impeded by tremendous heat and heavy smoke which made it difficult to see and breathe. To expedite the search Sate Police Officer Spates continued to look in the immediate area along with the officers from LAPD, while State Police Officer Renfrow left the apartment in an attempt to effect an entry through an exterior window. Officer Renfrow climbed up to the roof of the apartment’s front porch where he and an unidentified civilian broke out a second story window. As Officer Renfrew began to crawl through the window, the officers searching inside, shouted that they had discovered the child on the smoldering mattress inside a crib. Then Officer Spates lifted the unconscious boy who was not breathing from the mattress and handed him over to one of the LAPD Officers. The LAPD Officers carried him downstairs and outside where he was resuscitated through the administration of C.P.R. until the arrival of the Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics. Without the combined efforts of State Police Officers Spates and Renfrow, and Officers of the LAPD, who risked injury from falling debris and being overcome by smoke, the young child surely would have perished in the fire.