Aurora officer describes rescuing sleeping man from burning home

We've been showing you this incredible video. That is Aurora Police Officer Justin Cebulski forcing his way into a burning home. He did that to save a man who was inside, still asleep. So this is an incredible story. It is touching. His bravery and willingness to put his life on the line for others is beyond admirable. So we wanted to talk to him and we have him this morning over Zoom. Justin, thanks so much for being with us. And also, thank you for your bravery. Well, thank you. I really appreciate it. So can you walk us through, I mean, we've been watching that video, but can you walk us a little through that day? What happened? You were first to arrive on scene. So what was that like? Very adrenaline rushing. I was just driving to the PD because I get off work at 7 a.m. And we have an app that allows us to hear live 911 phone calls between the caller and our dispatchers. So I heard that there was a burning house, Randall Road, just south of Indian Trail, which I had passed probably around 15 seconds. So immediately, I just did a U-turn, started driving lights and sirens to that address because I was told there's a house engulfed in flames, no police, and there's no fire present. As soon as I pulled up, the entire roof was engulfed. And so you were right at the end of your overnight shift. You said you get off at 7 a.m., and it looks like the sun is coming up in that picture. Is that the case? Yes. Okay, got it. All right, so you pull up, you see the roof is on fire. Your mindset at that point, I know that there's situations that you train for, but once you get into that situation in real life, is it all instinct at that point, or was there any hesitation for you? No, immediately my mind was, is everybody out? Is everybody safe? Can we hold the scene for fire to then take care of the fire itself? Wow, and I guess piggybacking off what Anthony said. I've always heard that there are two kinds of people. There's a type of person who would run into a burning building and another type who would run away from it. And you're clearly that type of person who would run into it. I mean, what is it like? How do you make those split second decisions? Because I got to be honest, I don't think I'm the person who runs into the burning building. I guess I don't know. But what is going through your mind at those points? The entire time I wanted to know if everybody's out. And once I found out that last person wasn't the whole reason i signed up for the job was to try to help people and when i found out there's a possible person who could possibly lose their life i want to get them out yeah that makes sense now um the way you found out about it though i understand that there was a language barrier how tell us about the language barrier and how you navigated that there i primarily speak english i'm not fluent in spanish i took some classes in high school But as soon as they were responding in English, I tried doing a little bit of Spanish in hopes that's the language they spoke. I got some responses and I tried going down a road to figure out how many other people and possibly where if they could point or if they could just put me in some sort of direction so I wasn't going into a burning house blind. Yeah, yeah. My gosh, just incredible, kind of the right place at the right time for sure. What happened once you got everyone out of the house safely? Were you communicating with the people who were in there or how are they doing right now? What do you know? Totally, sir. They're doing well, though. Okay. So do- Officer Cebulski, do you mind stepping just a one step toward whatever microphone is nearby because you're- Sure. Thank you, sir. Really appreciate this. So we can hear you just a little bit better. That's great. All right. Okay. So I also want to just get a little bit of information for our viewers about your own background. How long have you been on the force and what inspired you to do this kind of work? There's a lot of career choices out there. So my father was a retired war police officer. My entire life, I looked up to him. I want to protect the community, serve the community that I grew up in, and especially following his footsteps along with the rest of my family. Because a lot of people in my family have gone down the first responder route. And I know- It's in the DNA. It's in the DNA. And I know you mentioned earlier, your job is to help people, you wanted to help people. When you go through these experiences, do you learn anything about yourself? Do you learn anything about yourself that surprises you as you go along this journey? I learn about the scenarios that I run through and when I'm put in those situations, I do what I think about and it makes me happy that I'm actually able to do the right thing and push past any fears or obstacles that come in my way. Just so impressive. Officer Cebulski, we, as Liz mentioned, we thank you for your bravery. We thank you for your time this morning. And that community is very lucky to have you. So thank you, sir. Thank you.