PALM COAST, Florida — Flagler County sheriff's deputies pulled a trapped homeowner away from advancing flames after arriving at a house fire before firefighters, according to the sheriff's office account and body-camera video published Thursday by FOX 35 Orlando.
Watch the Flagler County house-fire rescue
The publisher-hosted video below includes the Flagler County Sheriff's Office body-camera footage. It shows deputies moving through heavy smoke, locating the homeowner and working beside visible flames to lift him to safety.
Video source: Flagler County Sheriff's Office body-camera footage published and hosted by FOX 35 Orlando. If the embedded media file does not load, use the station's fallback video page.
Deputies heard a call for help through heavy smoke
FOX 35 reported from information supplied by the Flagler County Sheriff's Office that deputies were dispatched July 29 to a home on Westmoreland Drive after a passing driver saw smoke and called for help.
The deputies arrived to find thick black smoke pouring through the front doorway. They could hear someone inside calling for help, the report said.
Body-camera footage shows deputies finding the homeowner on a back patio. He was trapped under a pile of belongings and unable to move while flames spread nearby. Two deputies lifted the man and moved him toward safety as another deputy used a fire extinguisher carried in a patrol vehicle to hold back the flames.
Fire crews complete the response
After the homeowner was evacuated, crews from the Palm Coast Fire Department and Flagler County Fire Rescue extinguished the fire, according to FOX 35. The reviewed report did not identify the homeowner or provide an injury update, and ThinBlueNews is not adding one.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said patrol vehicles carry fire extinguishers because deputies are often first to reach emergencies. He commended the deputies for responding to the homeowner's calls and carrying out the rescue.
“We run towards danger, we don't run away. And that's exactly how deputies are trained.”
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly, as quoted by FOX 35 Orlando
The response shows the practical value of equipping patrol deputies for more than conventional police calls: a witness reported the smoke, deputies reached the house first, and a basic extinguisher helped them create enough time and space to bring a trapped resident out before fire crews completed the operation.
Readers can find more verified lifesaving work in ThinBlueNews' rescue news, body-camera rescue videos, first responder heroes and latest news.
Sources, video and image attribution
- FOX 35 Orlando — “Flagler County deputies rescue homeowner from burning Palm Coast house,” published July 30, 2026. FOX 35 identifies the Flagler County Sheriff's Office as the underlying source and publishes the agency body-camera footage.
- FOX 35 Orlando publisher video page for the Flagler County Sheriff's Office footage. The same publisher-hosted MP4 is used in the embedded player above.
Featured-image note: The image is a true frame from Flagler County Sheriff's Office body-camera footage published by FOX 35, not a recreation or unrelated representative image. The frame retains the station's visible agency-source label and the body-camera timestamp; no people, flames or incident details were added.
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