When Gainesville Police Officer Patrick Hopkins saw 30-foot flames rising from a home in June, he ran toward them.
Outside, a mother screamed for help. Black smoke surrounded her daughter, Kimberly Foster, inside the four-bedroom house.
“I was scared,” Kimberly, 31, said. “I didn’t want to die.”
On Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott awarded Hopkins a medal of heroism.
Fellow Officer Brett Kikendall and Cpl. Kevin Clinton, who responded to the house fire with Hopkins, received the same honor that day.
Hopkins believes they are the first in the department to receive the award.
“It’ll be something I remember forever,” he said.
On June 26, Kimberly woke up to the smell of smoke, which soon seeped into the closet where she hid from the fire. As flames grew outside her bedroom door, the smoke caused her lung to deflate.
“That’s all I remember,” she said.
Hopkins and Kikendall patrolled together when they heard the call go out: “10-65. Signal 25.”
When they arrived at the scene, 49-year-old Loretta Foster told them where her daughter was trapped.
With firefighters still traveling to the scene, Hopkins took a breath and climbed through Kimberly’s bedroom window.
“It was impossible for me to breathe or see and I could not hear anything at all…besides the sound of the fire,” he later wrote in a report.
One minute passed. Then another.
Inside the bedroom, Hopkins kept low to the ground as he searched for signs of life.
Unable to hold his breath much longer, Hopkins called out to Kimberly.
Moments later, Hopkins felt Kimberly’s foot and picked her up.
She was unresponsive inside the closet, and with Hopkins’ last breaths escaping him, he carried Kimberly through her window.
“I don’t know how much longer I could have gone,” he said.
After being treated for a few cuts and scrapes, Hopkins called his wife.
“I’ll be home a little bit late, but I’ll be home” he said.
The hospital released Kimberly after a few days, and Hopkins is still being treated for minor lung issues.
After their home of one month was destroyed, the Fosters moved in with a nearby family.
Around the same time, Hopkins and Kikendall gathered donations from fellow officers to buy the Fosters new beds, toys and other amenities.
The Fosters later sent Hopkins a Christmas card.
“It was a miracle that I’m alive now, because my momma love me to death and I love her too,” Kimberly said.
Hopkins said he knows anyone in the department would have done the same.
“Just another day,” he said.
Contact Martin Vassolo at mvassolo@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @martindvassolo.
