Oceanside CA— On October 5, 2015 at 12:50 a.m. Oceanside Police Department officers responded to assist Oceanside Fire Department firefighters with a house fire at 3318 Heather Lane. Officers arrived before the fire department to find the garage fully engulfed in flames with no indication the occupants had left.
On Monday night, October 12, 2015, one of the officers involved met with reporters to talk about the incident. Originally, the meeting was to be a reunion of the two officers and one of the family members they helped rescue that night but for reasons unknown, the family member was a no show.
Oceanside Police Officer Samuel Hay described to reporters what took place when he arrived on the scene of the fire.

“I was headed home for the night but I was close [to the incident]. The garage was fully engulfed with 20-30 foot flames. The house was dark. You could tell the front doors were locked. The blinds were drawn for the night. My partner was able to find a window that was open and pulled the screen from it and began yelling at the person inside to get up, your house is on fire. He came around, opened up the front door and allowed us to go in.”
Officer Hay said the resident told them there were six people still inside the home. “We went looking for five others. We went in, checked the bedrooms. My partner found one and I found one.” continued Officer Hay “We didn’t know it at the time but the other three were gone so we were running around the house trying to dodge the smoke and the flames to get the other three.”
When Officer Hay got to the first bedroom, the smoke level was about head high. By the time he got to the second bedroom, the smoke level had already dropped past waist high.
“At that hour, we are out roving around so we usually get to fires a little quicker than the fire department.” explained Officer Hay “Normally we just go around and make sure everything is safe and just let the fire department do their job but sometimes we have to go in and get people out.”
Hay said the incident is one of those situations you see in movies and talk with your buddies about. What would you do? Would you go in? “In that situation, you don’t think about it. It’s just a drive that governs us police officers. You go in when you need to.” Hay added that he’s been a police officer for 12 years. “I’ve helped a lot of people. That’s the satisfying part.”
Lieutenant Valencia Saadat said the officers will receive life saving awards later in the year.