I have six on one, Mr.

Mayor.

Good evening, everybody.

Welcome to Elo City Council meeting.

It is Monday, March 25th, 2024.

On calls me to order.

Miss Mary, can I get a roll call, please?

Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Wonuapa Rodriguez?

Here.

Vice Mayor Curtis?

Here.

Mayor Powell?

Here.

Councilmember Snyder.

Here.

Councilmember Garcia?

Present.

Councilmember Twangle.

Here.

Thank you all.

If we can stand for invocation being conducted by Pastor Debbie Mueller.

Remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Well, dear Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you and we praise you.

We thank you as we are in our Easter season.

We thank you, Lord, for what you've done for each and every one of us.

We do ask, Lord, tonight that you would bless the city council, that you would help them to make wise decisions for our city, that you would help them to know exactly how to handle business.

Arrests are being made.

So we're honored to bring to your attention the exceptional bravery and decisive action demonstrated by Officer Terrence Maher and Officer Andres Patino on the night of January 7th, 2024.

That night they were responding to a call of distress, an unknown type of a problem occurring in the 200 block of West Alsdorf Road.

When they got on scene, they encountered some uh some smoke in the area, and they heard screams and cries for help coming from a small travel trailer located toward the rear of a private property.

Um as they worked their way back to that portion of the property, they encountered a small, roughly 20-foot travel trailer where the windows and the exterior ventilation aspects of it were covered over with tar paper.

The front door had been replaced by a sheet of plywood with no exterior doorknob, and they could see smoke, significant amount of smoke emanating from the inside of the travel trailer, and they could hear screams for help coming from inside.

They moved around to the door and uh tried for several minutes to force entry in through a trailer door.

But with the lack of a doorknob and the lack of any way to force the door open, um it was very difficult and challenging for them.

Fortunately, one of the one of our victims, the male subject inside the house was able to reach up and through their commands unlocked the door, and they were able to pull the door open because they certainly couldn't push it in.

It was it was framed in.

What they faced next was a large cloud of smoke coming from inside the trailer.

What we had found out later to kind of set the stage is the couple living in that travel trailer didn't have any electricity.

And as we recall in January, it was still cold.

That night it was nearing freezing temperatures, and the couple had taken a steel of steel drum inside the trailer, propped it up on blocks, and had a wood fire going on inside this small travel trailer with no ventilation inside at all.

And as you can imagine, the fire, the smoke, and the carbon monoxide had built up to nearly fatal levels.

Once they got the door open, um Officer Maher and Officer Patino were able to drag the man out of the house.

Uh he was able to barely communicate with them that his wife was still trapped inside.

Um as they got him outside to fresh air, they developed a plan.

Uh they made entry the first time into the trailer and were forced back by the cloud of smoke until they could catch their breath, hold their breath, and go back in for two more uh entries into the trailer to find and they they were able to find the the man's wife, the woman located in the far back of the travel trailer.

She was completely unresponsive, unconscious, um, and had was about to succumb to the effects of the carbon monoxide poisoning and the smoke inhalation.

Um they grabbed her, they were able to pull her out, um, and that was no easy task considering they were unable to breathe with no breathing apparatus or safety equipment at all.

Um they worked uh as a team getting her outside about the time that the fire department arrived and were able to provide more advanced life-saving care to both of our victims.

Both Officer Maher and Officer Patino suffered significant smoke inhalation that night.

Um they were ill at the scene, they were vomiting, they had to be transported by ground ambulance to the hospital in Casagran, where they were kept in the hospital for nearly eight hours receiving oxygen therapy and treatment to make sure they weren't suffering from lasting effects of smoke inhalation.

Uh fortunately, because of their heroic efforts, both the man and the woman were eventually released from the hospital and recovered.

Umce that time, the the trailer has been removed and the safety hazard has been has been mitigated.

But that night, had it not been for their quick action, placing other people's lives ahead of their own, we would have had two uh likely two fatalities that night from significant smoke inhalation.

So uh that is the story that occurred on January 7th, and these are our two heroes that night that risked it all to go in and pull a couple people out of a very dangerous environment.

And for that, tonight, uh, with your permission, we would like to present them with the Eloy Police Department life saving medals.

Um first up will be Officer Terrence Maher.

Mayor, I'm turned uh over to you if you have anything you would like to say in the meantime, we'll get some some photographs.

One, two, three, and I'm short, so your kids want pictures in front of that.

The council would permit, just one more one more family photo to recognize what awesome job dad did.