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Sheriff's officers helped rescue three from burning house in Cahokia
BY JENNIFER BOWEN - News-Democrat

Three St. Clair County Sheriff's department officers arrived on the scene of a house fire earlier this month just minutes before the fire department to find three people, including a child, trapped inside.
The officers, Sgt. Michael Hundelt, Dep. Kevin Kocurek and Dep. Justin Biggs were near 7 Violet Drive in Cahokia answering an alarm call when the fire call went out indicating there were people trapped inside the house on April 16.
When the officers arrived thick, dark smoke filled the house, escaping from doors and windows but no flames could be immediately seen.

The windows on the house were covered with bars, according to the incident report, and people on the street were yelling about three people trapped inside the home.
Hundelt saw a woman, Chrystal D. Davis, 32, in the house, breathing through a hole she had managed to break in the window but was unable escape through the barred opening. She told Hundelt that she, a man and a child were trapped inside a bedroom in the house.
Kocurek and Hundelt went into the house and attempted to find the people trapped inside but they were quickly overcome by smoke and were unable to see or breathe. They ran outside, grabbed two hazmat masks from a kit and went back inside in another attempt to rescue the three people trapped inside.
Crawling on their hands and knees through the house the officers tried to locate the residents of the home.
Hundelt found the bedroom where the victims were trapped and saw a pair of child's legs sticking out from beneath a bed. He grabbed the girl, Miracle Nelson, 2, pulled her out from beneath the bed and carried her out of the home. He handed Miracle to Kocurek, grabbed another lungful of fresh air and went back inside the burning house, according to the report.
Hundelt went back inside the house and found Sylvester Nelson II, 33, lying unconscious on the bedroom floor. He was only able to Nelson for a short distance before being overcome by smoke and leaving the home again.
Kocurek and Biggs then went inside and were able to pull Nelson out of the house where he was breathing but taking very shallow breaths and unresponsive.
Nelson remains in the intensive care unit at a St. Louis Hospital.
Miracle was breathing on her own and conscious and crying when the Camp Jackson Fire Department arrived moments after officers were able to get Miracle Nelson out of the home.
Davis still remained trapped inside, breathing at the window but unable to escape. Once fire department personnel arrived they were able to get to Davis and rescue her from the burning house and extinguish the fire.
None of the officers who went into the house required medical care, according to St. Clair County Sheriff's Capt. Steve Johnson.
Rescuing families from burning homes isn't something that officers do frequently, Johnson said.
"It doesn't happen very often, thank goodness," he said. "One minute they are answering an alarm at a school, the next minute they are going into a burning building to try to pull people out, without even a second thought. Modern day law enforcement are heroes in what they do. They risked their lives to save people they didn't even know. "