‘We had one shot’: Collinsville cop praised for pulling man from burning building

Michael Bauer had just arrived at the police station.

The 10-year veteran Collinsville police patrol officer was standing in the dispatch area shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday when a 911 caller reported a fire at 704 W. Main St.

Bauer could tell by the tone of the dispatcher’s voice the call was serious. He left the station and drove the five blocks to the scene. He said while he was en route, the dispatcher reported there were still people inside.

“When I got there, I saw flames coming out of the back of the structure,” Bauer said. He also saw a man lying prone on a section of roof below a second-floor window.

“There was smoke coming out above him. I asked if there was anybody still inside and he said ‘Yes,’” Bauer said. “I kicked in the door and went into the porch area. The visibility was zero. I could hear him yelling. I knew he was close but I could not see him. I knew we had one shot. This had to be quick.”

Bauer couldn’t see through the thick smoke, so he felt his way along a hallway until he came upon the man, slumped against the wall near a staircase.

“He was very disoriented. I grabbed his arm and the back of his pants and started to go, and I couldn’t pull him. His shirt was hooked on something,” Bauer said. “I ripped the shirt, grabbed the back of his pants and his arm and just ran like hell. We made it out. It was hot.”

Bauer couldn’t see flames when he was inside the building, but he said it was so hot inside that he guessed the fire was just one room away from the man who was trapped. Seconds after Bauer and the man emerged, firefighters arrived.

The man who Bauer rescued was taken to a metro-east hospital and later transferred to St. Louis. He suffered serious smoke inhalation and other internal injuries, but he’s expected to recover. The man who Bauer first saw on the roof also was hospitalized but only suffered minor smoke inhalation.

Bauer was transported to a hospital for smoke inhalation, too. He was released after midnight Wednesday.

Tuesday’s rescue was not Bauer’s first.

In July 2007, when he’d been on the force barely more than a year, he and two other officers — Michael Bell and Curtis Jackson — responded to a fire burning in the kitchen of 117 W. Wickliffe Ave.

“There was an elderly gentleman with a walker in the kitchen and his wife was in the living room. And (the man) didn’t want to leave. He was very calm. Too calm,” Bauer said. “And then I saw the (oxygen) line going under his nose. And I thought, ‘Wonderful, he’s hooked up to a bomb.’”

Bauer said Bell and Jackson got the woman out of the house, one pushing her wheelchair and the other with a tank and a tangle of lines in his arms — she was on oxygen, too.

The man was still reluctant to leave. He finally decided to inch out of the house slowly using his walker, but that was bound to take too long. Bauer picked him up and carried him outside.

Their actions in 2007 earned Bauer, Bell and Jackson a letter of commendation and praise from city leaders. Collinsville Police Chief Steve Evans said Bauer will be getting another such letter and another round of praise at the city’s next City Council meeting March 28.

“It speaks for itself what he’s done. He didn’t hesitate. Any hesitation might have cost this gentleman’s life,” Evans said Friday. “I told (Bauer) that we know throughout his career he’s done many things that make a difference. If somewhere way down the road he’s ever wondering if he made a difference at some point, all he has to point to is this guy who’s living.”

Maybe what Bauer did in 2007 and again Tuesday is courageous, but he said he’s not fearless.

“If you’re not scared, you need to hang it up,” he said. And he blushes and shakes his head when the word “hero” is mentioned. He says he’s not one.

“I have the luxury to work for one of the best police departments and work with some of the best firefighters in the Midwest. So it affords you the confidence to (take risks) because you know they’re coming,” he said. “You know they won’t let you down.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 5:37 PM with the headline "‘We had one shot’: Collinsville cop praised for pulling man from burning building."