Cops sometimes
Police defend decision to cite man who rushed into burning apartment to save dog
By CHRISTIAN BOTTORFF
Staff Writer
Metro police said today they were right to cite a man who rescued his dog from a burning apartment building in West Nashville last night.
Jarrod T. Martin, 26, who lived in the apartments, was handcuffed, held by officers and cited for disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment, but was not booked into the Metro Jail after entering the burning building, and throwing his dog to safety.
The Metro Police Department received 10 telephone calls this morning and others throughout the day from people who were watching television footage captured by a bystander and aired on local television stations, said Don Aaron, police spokesman.
Letters were also sent to The Tennessean from outraged readers who had dubbed Martin a ''hero,'' and who were concerned that Martin was taken into custody.
Attempts to reach Martin today have been unsuccessful.
Fire officials said Martin used a fireman's hook pole to break the window of his apartment at 6565 Premiere Drive, then entered the smoke-filled apartment room. The fire at the Premier West Apartment complex started last night around 6:20 p.m.
Martin put firefighters in danger by entering the building, diverted their attention from the blaze, and could have caused a ''back draft,'' a flash fire caused by a sudden rush of oxygen, said Assistant Chief Kim Lawson, spokeswoman for the Nashville Fire Department.
Fire officials and police had warned Martin it was too dangerous to go to the apartment and told him not to go inside, but he went anyway, Lawson and police said.
Martin received a minor cut but was otherwise uninjured, officials said.
It is probable that fire officials would have been able to save the dog after the blaze was batted down, but were unable to do that at the time Martin entered the burning building, Lawson said.
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