Woman dies after house fire in Springfield despite rescue efforts by local security officer
SPRINGFIELD, Mo January 23 2019 A woman is dead after a house fire on west Division in Springfield, despite heroic actions by a security officer who tried to save her.
32 year old Morgan Diehl died from her injuries at the hospital.
Caleb O’Pry is a security officer for the Southern Missouri office of Judicial Services.
He was out on his regular patrol Sunday night, when he decided to take a different route.
“This particular night he said I am going to take this route because it might be a little closer to get to the next place that he was going. So it was just by chance that he was in that area.” said Natalie McGuire, public information officer for SMOJS.
That is when O’Pry saw a house on fire and stopped to check it out.
“He noticed the door was hot, he seen flames coming out of the windows and the front door. So he went around to the side of the house.” said Tim Brenner, owner of SMOJS.
“He saw the woman inside trying to get out of the window. He took his baton, knocked the glass out, took his coat off, covered his coat in the window, covered her, and pulled her out of the window and carried her to safety.” explained McGuire.
The security officer helped the woman until first responders arrived.
“We train them in first aid, CPR.” said Brenner. “We carry medical kits in the car for that reason. If they see someone in public that needs help, I encourage them even though that person is not a client, to give help to that person.”
Brenner says fire evacuation is part of their training too.
“A lot of our clients are apartment buildings. So we teach them how to get people out of house and stuff for that type of reason.”
When first responders got to the house, Morgan Diehl was unresponsive in the yard.
She was rushed to the hospital where she died from her injuries.
“He is a good person, you want to do good, that is what we are trained to do, and he just wanted to save her.” McGuire said about O’Pry.
The woman’s cause of death hasn’t been released… and the cause of the fire is still under investigation at this time.
