ST. GEORGE, Utah — Five St. George Police Department officers have received the agency’s highest honors for their actions during the Bella Vista apartment fire, a response in which officers entered smoke-filled buildings, forced doors and helped residents escape.
St. George News reported Sept. 20 that Sgt. Justin Neil, Sgt. Tyler Earle and Officer Robert Leavitt received the Medal of Honor, while Sgt. Jaden Jex and Officer David Hamblin received the Medal of Valor. The awards recognized their response to the June 7 fire at Bella Vista Apartments.
Officers moved toward the fire before engines arrived
According to the newly published account, officers arrived before the first fire engine and saw flames moving through the apartment complex. They began knocking on doors and directing residents out while smoke spread through the buildings.
The report said Earle and Neil encountered a resident who believed a man remained inside an apartment. They forced their way through a locked security door, entered through heavy smoke and searched until deteriorating conditions forced them back outside. Leavitt and Hamblin also forced apartment doors and helped evacuate residents, while Jex continued searching the second floor with Neil and Earle.
The five officers were among eight St. George officers treated for smoke inhalation after the response. Previous reporting said residents were safely evacuated and that fire crews from St. George and neighboring communities responded.
Medal of Honor and Medal of Valor
St. George News described the Medal of Honor as the department’s highest award. The Medal of Valor recognizes an act of exceptional bravery performed voluntarily in the face of personal risk. The Sept. 20 report said the five awards were presented for the officers’ efforts at the apartment complex.
The recognition places individual names behind a response that was initially seen largely through urgent body-camera footage: officers running toward a burning building, working door to door and continuing the evacuation while fire conditions intensified.
A follow-up to the Bella Vista rescue
ThinBlueNews reported the original rescue and body-camera release in June. That coverage documented the evacuations, second-floor ladder rescue and the treatment of eight officers for smoke inhalation. The present report is a distinct follow-up about the department honors announced months later.
The available reporting does not establish the condition of the man whom officers searched for inside the apartment. ThinBlueNews is therefore not adding an outcome or medical detail beyond what the cited source reported.
The fire response reflects a basic public-safety reality: patrol officers may arrive first at emergencies far outside routine police calls. In this case, their immediate role was evacuation — waking residents, opening paths out and helping firefighters gain precious time as the incident escalated.
This story is part of ThinBlueNews’s coverage of police rescue news and positive police news involving civilian law-enforcement agencies.
Editorial note: ThinBlueNews checked its complete local article index and found related June coverage of the same apartment fire, but no prior article about these September awards. The new recognition is treated as a clearly labeled follow-up and links to the earlier report. The source publisher’s incident photos were not copied because no republication license for ThinBlueNews was established. The featured image is original, photo-independent symbolic artwork and does not depict the fire, officers or rescue.