What impressed Palm Coast Fire Chief and Interim Manager Jerry Forte about Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy Marcus Dawson–what caused Forte to call Dawson “heroic”–was the way the deputy immediately asked all the right questions and followed all the right procedures, then went beyond them, leading him to the 3-year-old hiding under a blanket in a bedroom, as a kitchen fire burned.
Dawson saved the toddler Sunday evening. Just as he was coming out of the house with the boy, Palm Coast Fire Department firefighters were moving into the house and the kitchen, dousing the flames and extinguishing the fire, which did not go past the kitchen.
“Just to put it in perspective,” Forte said, “you have a deputy who first gets on scene and asks all the right questions of the neighbors, goes behind the house, takes a quick look, tries to get attention from someone at the front door, doesn’t know if anybody is in the house, doesn’t get a response, yet is willing to open a sliding glass door and look to see what’s on the other side. That’s heroic behavior right there.”
Dawson’s body cam video and his own incident report capture the scene. He had immediately asked a neighbor of the house at 40 Weymouth Lane in Palm Coast how many people live in the house–“a family of three,” the neighbor told him, as the numerous sirens of approaching fire trucks and emergency vehicles blared in the distance. The neighbor had seen flames. The deputy swings from back porch to front door as he stays in contact with dispatch, including providing details of where the nearest hydrant was. He repeatedly pounds the front door and gets no answer. He goes back to the back porch.
“I observed a small fire on the stove that was spreading to the cabinets,” Dawson wrote. “I further observed thick black smoke filling the residence. I heard dogs barking at the sliding glass door of the rear bedroom.” He again called out. He walked in, the beeping from the fire alarms now audible. Video of the interior of the house is blurred in accordance with current law, but the voice of the deputy finding the child is clear: “Hi, buddy! Where’s your mommy?” the deputy asks the child. (“I saw a little head pop up. It was under the covers,” the deputy would later tell a fireman.)
“Where’s my mom?” the child asks.
“Where’s your mommy? Come with me,” the deputy tells him in a reassuring voice. “OK. OK,” the child says. As the pair walk out, firefighters are walking in. The deputy tells them where he found the child. Firefighters head in and conduct a search of their own. The deputy hands off the child to Firefighter-Paramedic Kalin Graham, and rushes back into the house with a fire department captain “to ascertain if anyone else was in the bedroom, which yielded a negative result,” he reported. (Graham in July was among the team of firefighters recognized for their own life-saving efforts when they and deputies pulled a suicidal teen off the Palm Coast Parkway overpass over I-95.)
The child’s 41-year-old father was soon back at the house. He explained to the deputy that he’d planned to take his toddler with him to get Chinese food. But the child was sleeping, and his stepson, a 17-year-old boy, was at the house, so he decided to leave them both and go to pick up the food. While he was gone, the 17-year-old boy left the house without telling his stepfather (he had no cell phone), apparently to “spend time with his biological father,” according to the report.
“I don’t know what the outcome was but it seemed the baby was fine” when he was treated by paramedics at the scene, Forte said. The fire chief said the deputy willingly took risks. “You don’t know the temperature of a house that’s filled with smoke and the deputy’s clothing is not what would be considered survivable for something like that,” Forte said.
Without Dawson “immediately running toward danger, even without a safety respirator, this could have been a much different outcome,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “This child was hiding in fear of the fire and smoke watching a cartoon on his phone when, thankfully, [deputy first class] Dawson’s training in emergency response allowed him to find this child and safely rescue him. This was a dangerous situation and we are very proud of DFC Dawson’s bravery and commitment to serving this community and saving a life.”
All indications, Forte said, based on the preliminary investigation at the scene, pointed to a microwave malfunction. Aside from the damage to that area of the kitchen, the fire was contained.
Dawson has been with the Sheriff’s Office since 2016, and was a detective until just a few months ago. He is now in charge of a K-9 unit. His firefighter’s instincts are not out of thin air: he was previously a volunteer firefighter with the Flagler Beach Fire Department.
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Timothy Patrick Welch says
Sounds like a good outcome and a heroic effort by Deputy Marcus Dawson!
Thanks for reporting:)
Gina Weiss says
Blessings to deputy Marcus Dawson, a true hero.
bob says
APPLAUSE, STANDING OVATION
Mee Too! says
Wait a minute….the 17 year old doesn’t have a cell phone but the 3 year old does? JS
Ria Geary says
Thank you so much, Deputy Dawson!
That little guy will always remember how you helped him and brought him to safety..a job very well done…
Land of no turn signals says says
Glad the child is O.K.Didn’t read about charges being filed.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Wow. Marcus deserves a promotion! He has brains, guts, instinct and one hell of a great smile…Couldn’t be more qualified to climb the ladder.
Resident says
A wonderful hero
Jimbo99 says
This sounds like a microwave upgrade project gone wrong ? What happens is that a DIYer goes to Home Depot/Lowe’s and upgrades a lighted & fan range hood with an over the stove microwave unit and uses the same circuit without realizing that there is a difference between the power draw from a counter top microwave vs the over the stove microwave. It takes less electrical current to operate a light & fan for a range hood and that internal house wiring circuit is inadequate for an over the stove microwave, the wires overheat, melt & burn off the insulation and a fire starts. And that countertop microwave is usually a 600-800 Watt unit that plugs into a GFCI outlet as safer vs the over the stove microwave that is more like 1,250-1,500 Watts.
https://kitchengearoid.com/microwave-oven/microwave-wattage-input-or-output/
The hidden cost of an over the stove microwave oven is the electrician coming out to drop an upgraded circuit line into the wall. Quite often a range hood is wired with wiring that that is lighter gauge than what other wall sockets are on. And people don’t realize, that the circuit breaker is so many amps, but the wire gauge has to be adequate to handle a cumulative load as well. It matters how many items you have drawing electrical current & just because there are 2 receptacles, doesn’t mean that combined it’s an overload situation & fire hazard.
Another example is a corded electric lawnmower, a 13 amp mower is going to need a 12/3 grounded power cord so the extension cord doesn’t burn up & overheat. And with electricity & extension cords foot length matters 50 feet vs 100 feet and even daisy chained together is a recipe for overloading and a fire hazard. So know what your electrical source is capable of vs what you’re trying to operate on any wiring circuit.
That house is fortunate it wasn’t burned to the ground. We all take it for granted that when you plug an electrical appliance into the wall that it just works. Range hoods are wired to code and pass inspections, but the reality is, they aren’t heavy duty for a over the stove microwave. I upgraded a range hood back in 2015, if you don’t know what your doing spend the money to get an electrician out to the house to at least verify that circuit isn’t a fire hazard. That way nobody reads about these kind of fire stories.
Long post, but it’s a PSA and explanation of the causes of house fires. Sometimes you get a warning and the microwave will just quit working until the wiring in the wall are cooled. If that happens, it’s expensive to replace internal wiring because the wiring insulation is damaged. Sometimes the overheating won’t trip the circuit breaker and that’s when a fire might happen. Most over the range microwaves have a dedicated line added as a circuit.
Kathy says
Will a fire start if no one is using the microwave? As an example, the boy was in his bedroom, the teen and the father not home. Thanks for PSA
The Geode says
PULEEZE.. I have installed dozens if not a hundred or so and NEVER up-graded any wiring or had any issues. Sounds like somebody didn’t secure their wires or tape the connections to “hell and back” (I use an overabundance of caution) to make sure that no wire would dare come loose or arc…
Kate says
Not sure where you got your information from but you are way way off base!
Please disregard Jimbos post
Concerned Citizen says
Kudos to the Deputy for quick thinking.
Hopefully this makes the parent rethink things. Also Chief Forte brings up a great point. Fire Rescue has clothing designed to enter a structure fire. But often times a LEO might be first on scene. The material most service uniforms are designed from are not meant to survive that environment. Maybe it’s time for the uniform industry to revisit this issue. And make sure all of our first responders have the gear necessary to keep them safe
Skibum says
Attaboy, Deputy Dawson!!! I am so grateful for the outstanding job our deputies do on behalf of the citizens of this county and the city of Palm Coast. Deputy Dawson perfectly embodies the qualities that we all should admire in a law enforcement officer, and I hope the sheriff’s office has begun the process to recognize his actions, especially since reports state that he has had several other incidents where he personally has acted quickly to save lives. Congratulations and another life saving award are certainly in order.
Whathehck? says
We are so lucky to have Deputy Marcus Dawson on our side.
Also thank you to the neighbor who reported the fire.
These great people cared and made a difference.