Hempstead deputies honored with lifesaving award
HOPE, Arkansas — Two Hempstead County deputies were honored earlier this week for rescuing an unresponsive man from a house fire.
On Monday, Sheriff James Singleton awarded the department’s Lifesaving Award to Deputy Kyle Malone and Deputy Layton Medlen for their actions on December 30, 2020, when the two deputies entered a burning house in Fulton, Arkansas.
When deputies were dispatched to 211 Ogan Street in Fulton regarding a house being on fire, they were advised that there were people still inside the residence.
A woman told deputies that she and her two 11-year old-children were safe but that her 30-year-old adult son was still inside near the southwest bedroom of the residence.
Once inside the smoke-filled house, they discovered a 30-year-old man unresponsive in a bathtub of the residence, according to a report from the sheriff’s office. Both Malone and Medlen carried the man from the residence to EMS personnel for treatment and transport to a hospital in Texarkana.
Firefighter Clay Antley of the Crossroads VFD enter the residence but come back out a few seconds later and said he could not see inside the residence because of the thick smoke and that he could not locate anyone inside. Antley then broke out the window to the bedroom and placed a ladder in the window. Malone climbed the ladder and was unable to see inside the room. However, Malone and Medlen made their way through the smoke along with firemen where they discovered the man unresponsive in a bathtub.