An off-duty Essex Police officer who courageously saved his neighbours from their burning house has won an Essex Police Federation Bravery Award.<\/p>\n
PC Taylor Nash is recognised alongside an Essex nurse at the Federation\u2019s second annual event for superb work and courage.<\/p>\n
PC Nash was at the beginning of his career, having just left college, when he was at home in the Colchester area of Essex on 8 May 2020 and heard windows smashing.<\/p>\n
He looked across the road and saw his neighbours\u2019 house was on fire, with flames pouring out of the top windows.<\/p>\n
PC Nash knew that a family of three lived at the house, including a man who suffered from motor neurone disease and who was bed-bound as a result.<\/p>\n
PC Nash immediately ran to the house and, looking through the open front door, could see the man near the back door, with his wife and daughter trying to get him out.<\/p>\n
He entered the burning building and told the wife and daughter to get themselves out to safety. He grabbed the man and along with another neighbour, who was an off-duty nurse, they got the man out into the back garden as the fire spread to the ground floor.<\/p>\n
They were still in danger, as the garden was completely enclosed and windows were exploding from the heat, showering them with hot broken glass. Thick smoke was also pouring from the house, so they had difficulty breathing.<\/p>\n
PC Nash ripped down a fence to a neighbouring property and he and the neighbour carried the man into the next garden and then out into the field behind them.<\/p>\n
The fire and rescue service arrived to ensure the fire could be brought under control and neighbouring houses saved.<\/p>\n
PC Nash recalls: \u201cIt was early morning and I\u2019d just got home from the night shift. I\u2019d literally just got into bed and I heard a window smash outside. At first I thought maybe it was a car accident or something like that, so I\u2019ve quickly jumped out of bed, ran downstairs and went to the window. I saw my neighbour\u2019s house\u2026 the top floor the windows were blown out and there was fire pouring out the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was quite a heavy man, to lift him out of the house. Whilst I was doing this, as I went through the garden, all of the windows on the top floor started blowing out. We were getting covered in shattered glass.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mum and the daughter decided to run back into the house to collect belongings\u2026 some of the gentleman\u2019s medication and things that were irreplaceable such as paintings. That\u2019s when I had to run back into the house. At this point I showed them my warrant card just so I could get them out.\u201d<\/p>\n
PC Nash added: \u201cThere were no casualties. No one was injured. Obviously everyone had to get checked over because of the smoke. My neighbour\u2019s a nurse as well, he obviously was checking everyone over.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy neighbours girlfriend was massively helping us as well, getting everyone water, just looking after everyone. It was community help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Essex Police Federation Chair Laura Heggie said: \u201cTaylor and his neighbour are heroes. I commend them for their extreme bravery, putting themselves in danger to save this family in distress. They entered the burning building, despite the flames, thick smoke and exploding windows.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaylor was only a young-in-service officer at the time and he was off duty but his actions were in line with the highest traditions of the police service and undoubtedly saved the occupants from death or serious injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows once again how police officers are much more than crime fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n
PC Nash will attend the Essex Police Federation Bravery Awards on 26 May where an overall winner will be announced. The nurse has also been invited to attend.<\/p>\n
The Awards are in Association with Uniform Mortgages. The hashtag for the event is #EssexFedBravery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An off-duty Essex Police officer who courageously saved his neighbours from their burning house has won an Essex Police Federation Bravery Award. PC Taylor Nash is recognised alongside an Essex\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189037"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190731,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189037\/revisions\/190731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/189119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}