Off-duty Springfield officer kicks in door to rescue teen from burning home

UPDATE @ 6:10 p.m.:

A teenager was sleeping and unaware of a house fire when an off-duty Springfield police officer broke down the door and rescued him.

The officer called 911 after he spotted the fire coming from the back of the home on Dogwood Road in the Crystal Lake subdivision of Bethel Twp. in Clark County.

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The fire caused an estimated $30,000 damage, but its cause is under investigation, Bethel Twp. Fire Department Assistant Chief Brian Ludwick said.

The family of four — two teen boys, an infant and a parent — is displaced, he said. The rescued teen was the only family member home at the time of the fire, Ludwick said.

FIRST REPORT

An off-duty Springfield police officer broke down the door to a house to rescue a teen inside a burning home.

Heavy fire was showing from the back of a house when crews were dispatched shortly before 5 p.m. to a home on Dogwood Road in the Crystal Lake subdivision in Bethel Twp.

Firefighters were able to quickly knock down the fire, and contain it to the back of the home.

Three children and an adult live in the home, but only the teenaged boy was home at the time of the fire.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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