?7 April 2000

Sunderland Police Chief Saves Life At Fire
It can be very easy to take the work of police officers and fire fighters for granted. Both jobs call for you to put your life on the line for others. And that's exactly what one brave officer did Wednesday morning.
A fire in Sunderland Wednesday trapped a young woman in her top floor apartment, but the heroic actions of the local Police Chief were more than enough to avert a possible tragedy. 
Charred remains. After a lighter dropped on a mattress ignites a blaze at the Sugar Loaf Estates in Sunderland, on the third floor, a young woman is trapped, unable to unlock her door. One of the first on the scene, Police Chief Evan Golann.
"We just basically went right through here and up to the third floor. We were able to gain entry and we brought her out the back.
The building was so badly burned that it has now been condemned. But Golann put his own well being aside and rushed to the aid of a graduate student from New York, Sophia Reid.
"There was a lot of smoke and there was some flames starting to come from the second floor. She was in the one above it and the smoke was filling up, so it didn't seem like there was lot of time to play around."
Capt. James Duda of Sunderland Fire says, "We got an initial report over the radio of having people trapped up on the second floor and it made me a little nervous, and was very relieved to find that Chief Golann had gotten them out as quick as he did. And he did an excellent job."
The tenant, Sophia Reid, declined to comment about her rescuer on camera. Golann says that if it wasn't him, he's sure someone else would have done the same thing. "I just see it as the spin of a roulette wheel. If I didn't come here, a few minutes later, someone in the fire department would have done the same thing."
But even Chief Golann admits that when someone is trapped in a burning building, a few minutes can be the difference between life and death. 
Thanks to the quick actions of Chief Golann and the Sunderland Fire Department, there were no injuries. Sophia Reid and the other tenants who lived in her building are currently staying with friends or relatives. 
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