Police officers pull man from burning house

April 30, 2009

Police officers pull man from burning house

By MARK I. JOHNSON
Staff Writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- Steve Beres is the first to admit he is no firefighter.

"I would rather grab a guy with a gun on crack than fight a fire," the Daytona Beach deputy police chief said Wednesday afternoon.

However, just hours before, he and three of his officers braved flames and smoke to pull a 60-year-old man from his burning home.

Dean Frederick Sweeney suffered second-degree burns over 80 percent of his body when a lamp cord overheated, sparking a fire that engulfed the living room of his South Ridgewood Avenue home just before midnight Tuesday, police said.

Beres was on routine patrol when he said he saw smoke drifting through the streetlights. He investigated, eventually going door to door in the block, before seeing flames inside Sweeney's home.

When a neighbor told him it was likely Sweeney was inside, the officer began looking for a way in, but locked doors and heavy smoke and flames blocked his way.

"I could hear him yelling, 'Help me! Help me!" Beres recalled. "And I could see him through the flames."
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Police officers pull man from burning house