SUMNER COUNTY, Tenn.- Two police officers in Sumner County are being called heroes after they rescued a woman from her home in Portland after it caught fire.
Police said the fire began when a kerosene heater tipped over. Portland Police Officers Shawn Tyson and Chris Arthur pulled 54-year-old Regina Wheelis from the house.
"I was able to skirt around the
wall around the fire and make my way to the back of the house in the kitchen
where she was at. I called to her and
she answered," said Officer Tyson.
The officers picked her up and pulled her to safety. They said Wheelis suffered serious burns on her body and she fell and cut her head. Paramedics rushed Wheelis to the hospital.
"She's got burns down her right arm,
stitches in her forehead, burns on her leg and burns on her backside," said Wheelis' husband.
He knows had the officers not arrived sooner the
outcome could have been a lot different. Officials said Wheelis is in critical condition at the Vanderbilt Burn Unit.
The officers don't look at themselves as heroes.They say their instincts took over.
