Tulsa Police: Officer On Warrant Patrol Saves Unattended Baby From Fire

A Tulsa police officer is hailed a hero for rescuing a baby from a burning home.

Officer Brandon Jarrett said when he got to a home there was smoke coming out of the attic vents. Inside, he could hear the fire alarm and an unattended baby crying.

Where you find one, you'll find the other.. Jarrett and K9 Officer Cado have a job to track down the bad guys.

“If someone's running or outstanding, that's when our dog's come into play,” Jarrett said.

That's what they were doing Saturday. The officers were called to a north Tulsa neighborhood to watch out for a stabbing suspect, instead bystanders found them.

“They flagged me down and said, 'hey officer, that roof is on fire,’” Jarrett said.

The house was just out of Jarrett's sight. He drove straight there, jumped out and left Cado inside the air conditioned patrol car.

“Ran up to the front door, I could already see the blinds were starting to melt,” Jarrett said.

He banged on the door, no answer, just a baby screaming on the other side. And because the door was locked, he kicked it in.

“You're not thinking much, just break the door down... rip this house apart to try and get in there and get her,” Jarrett said.

The house was filled with smoke so thick, he couldn't see inside.

“It's not about you at that moment, it's about the life that's inside or lives,” Jarrett said.

Remembering a lesson from grade school, he got below the smoke and started crawling, all while talking to the baby.

“I probably was a foot away from the ground and just was crawling on my hands and knees, and all the sudden, I see this little hand reach up, and she's still crying, reach up, so I just pick her up and ran outside,” he said.

The baby, a little girl just 10 months old, was alive and completely unaware of what she just survived.

“She was just smiling, laughing,” he said. “She had black coming out of her nose, out her mouth.”

When they got outside, Jarrett handed off the baby.

But he still had to find that stabbing suspect, who turned out to be the baby's mother - Montrenique Morris. He arrested her next door. Morris told police she left the baby alone to make a phone call at a neighbor’s, and left a pan of chicken strips cooking in oil on the stove.

If Jarrett had gotten there just a few minutes later, the outcome would have been different, he said. He called it being at the right place at the right time; others call it heroic.

“It feels good knowing that she gets to wake up every day for the rest of her life and it feels good to be a part of that,” Jarrett said.

The baby's grandmother said she hopes it is a wake-up call for her daughter and said the baby is doing fine and is with family.

Morris was arrested for child neglect, assault with a deadly weapon, possession of marijuana and two outstanding warrants. The warrants were for larceny from a retailer and assault with body fluids.