A wildlife technician from Buena Vista has been honored for his off-the-job heroics.
Charlie Blake works for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, but it was his actions saving a woman from a fire that won the attention of the North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association, a group with some 8,000 members across the continent.
Earlier this month the group gave Blake its “Award of Valor” at the annual conference in Great Falls, Mont.
Blake and a Buena Vista police officer were first on the scene of a Feb. 20 apartment fire.
“Smoke was boiling out the windows,” the DOW said in a news release. The two men “could hear a woman screaming and coughing from a second-story apartment, but she did not respond to their calls.”
The two climbed to a balcony, and Blake went into the smoky apartment through a broken window.
He crawled in and found an unconscious woman, who he dragged back to the window and handed out to the police officer.
Firefighters then arrived to tackle the blaze, and an ambulance took the woman to a hospital. Blake was treated for smoke inhalation.
The building’s roof collapsed about 30 minutes later.
“Blake’s quick decision and brave work undoubtedly saved the woman’s life,” the release said.
