SIDNEY — Sidney Police Sgt. Warren Melerine helped to save the lives of two men involved with the early morning fire last Thursday as he was first on the scene.

Although Melerine is not a firefighter, and without any type of protective gear, his adrenalin and years of experience protecting and serving the community kicked into gear prompting him to rush the two-story house engulfed in flames at 519 W. North St., Sidney. His cruiser-cam shows Melerine abruptly exiting the vehicle and running toward the flames.

Melerine described the fire as “very intense, very hot and with a lot of smoke.” Even though he is an experienced officer, he knew his limitations.

“First there is a big flash (thought) of, ‘we need to get in there and do what we can; figure out where the people are,” said Melerine of his first thoughts. “Even though we are not firefighters, it’s normal procedure for us to do what we can before the fire department arrives. If people are still inside, first thing is always to try to make sure everyone is out. But you can tell pretty quickly if you will be able to do much.”

The man who reported the fire was out front when Melerine arrived and alerted him people were still inside. It was obvious to the sergeant the intense flames would prevent him from entering the residence, but he could see a man on the front porch holding open the screen door yelling to another inside.

Melerine quickly mounted the porch to direct him down, and began yelling to the second man within, who was then able to hear their voices and discern the direction of exit. The disoriented men told of others upstairs, however, there was no way to gain access to the second floor because the stairwell was “fully engulfed.”

Melerine said immediately prior to the fire department arriving, he and other police officers tried to lift another officer up to the roof of the porch to access the second floor, but they couldn’t get the officer high enough.

Out of his 15 years with the department, he has only been involved with one other fire of this magnitude, but it did not claim any lives, with the trapped child being rescued. This incident was not as fortunate, as Sidney Daily News previously reported, Goldie A. North, 36, and her daughter Luna North, 3, were the two victims trapped on the second floor who died in the fire.

“It’s tough,” admitted Melerine, “We are still people. We all have children. Nobody likes to see a loss of life; especially a child. But you wanna try to help — the police, fire department — we want help.”

According to Melerine, during the brief space he had with the two survivors before they were transported to Wilson Hospital, he described the men as being highly confused and disoriented asking him what had happened, and saying they were awakened by the smoke and heat.

“The fire is still under investigation, with hopefully some answers from the State Fire Marshall in the next few couple of days,” said Assistant Chief Chris Niswonger.

“I’m very proud of all the officers that responded to the fire. Even though it was a tragic loss, I’m proud they were able to get one person off of the porch and one out of the house,” said Police Chief William Balling. “I’m also proud of the dispatch center for giving such a quick response to the caller and their efforts to get emergency responders on the way quickly.”