What seemed to be a typical Monday for a Canton police officer and an off-duty Holly Springs police officer soon turned into heroic afternoon, as the two men, along with the help of city and county fire personnel, pulled an unresponsive man from his burning home.

“I was on patrol going south on Interstate 575 when a call came out about a structure fire,” said 23-year-old Canton Ofc. Stephen Delman. “Dispatch urged anyone in the area to respond, so I did.”

Holly Springs off-duty Ofc. Shane Smith followed.

“He was in full uniform, but he didn’t have to follow me if he didn’t want to,” Delman, who has been on the force for eight months, said.

For the Holly Springs officer, assisting was something he felt obligated to do, even if he was not on duty.

“In this job, off-duty and on-duty are two ways to describe your status, but you are always a police officer and you always have an obligation to the public,” Smith, 40, said.

Smith, who was also on I-575 after leaving the Justice Center in Canton, said he had heard dispatch request assistance, but was not familiar with the location because it was within the city of Canton.

“I saw a patrol car responding in full lights and sirens. As soon as it passed me, I saw that it was a Canton officer and had a good hunch that was where he was going,” Smith said.

In the midst of responding to the structure fire at 139 Ilex Drive just after 3 p.m., Jan. 9, Delman said dispatch informed him of an entrapment. Once on scene, the officers attempted to open the front door, to no avail.

“When we arrived, we tried to kick down the front door, but it wouldn’t give,” Delman recalled. “I ran around to the side of house and found a sliding glass door that was locked. We began yanking on it and it finally gave way.”

Smith said thick, yellowish smoke already had accumulated throughout the downstairs, hindering the officers’ ability to locate the victim, Benjamin Walker, 31, who told the Ledger-News he has little to no recollection of his near-death experience.

“I have had a slight case of amnesia for over the past year and a half; I only remember what I have been told,” he said, adding that he still isn’t aware of the cause of the fire. “(Officials) think it was faulty wiring, an outlet or the dryer might have caused the wires to get hot in the wall.”

Less than a minute after entering the home, crawling through the kitchen and the living room, officers located the victim lying on the floor near the front door. Walker, who said he was on the phone with E-911, recalled trying to escape when he collapsed down the steps and landed on the hardwood floors.

“I notified dispatch that there was a man down,” Smith said, adding that he rolled Walker over while Delman attempted to open the front door. 

(LEFT:  At the Feb. 2 City Council Meeting, Canton Interim Police Chief Todd Vande Zande presented Ofc. Ryan Campbell (pictured), Sgt. Michael Hales and Ofc. Stephen Delman (pictured, from left, background) with a life-saving award certificate for two lives saved Jan. 7 and Jan. 9. Officers resuscitated a man twice Jan. 7, after his wife called 911, when she found him unresponsive. The man was alert and talking when paramedics arrived and is doing well today, Vande Zande said. Photo by Erika Neldner | Ledger-News)

“We wanted to get in and get out,” Delman added. “I didn’t want us all to become victims.”

Although Walker was unresponsive, the officers were able to locate a steady pulse, at which point Canton fire, Cherokee Fire-ES, as well as additional Holly Springs and Canton police officers arrived on scene and helped pulled the victim out of the home.

Smith said as Walker was loaded onto a gurney, fire personnel already were in defensive mode against the blaze.

“It wasn’t an individual effort by any means,” Delman said. “Ofc. Smith and everyone else on scene did a great job and, fortunately, it turned out just the way that it did.”

Walker is equally as thankful.

“Their instincts kicked in and that’s what saved my life. While I was in the hospital, I was so anxious to meet the people who rescued me out of the house,” he said, noting that he has met Delman and hopes to meet Smith soon. “Hopefully we can make it a long-term relationship.”

Although the experience of saving Walker’s life was one Delman would not likely forget, he said it was his job and it could happen again.

“Police are typically on the scene first, then the fire department comes in,” he said. “Sometimes the firefighters arrive first, but they still wait for us to secure the scene first.”

If a similar situation were to present itself again, Delman, who is CPR-certified, said he is prepared.