Ryan Burgess, a Northwest High School resource officer and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputy, added firefighter to his list of duties on Jan. 29 when he leaped into action to put out a car fire. Burgess used a fire extinguisher from his car to put out the fire in the car on the high school’s parking lot, authorities reported.
Northwest R-1 School District Superintendent Jennifer Hecktor said Burgess’ quick thinking prevented further damage to surrounding cars.
“We are so fortunate to have proactive and engaged staff who take wonderful care of our students, staff and their property," she said.
Cedar Hill Fire Chief Mick Fischer said Burgess and security official Josh Adams had completely put out the fire by the time firefighters arrived at 2:08 p.m. Fischer said after inspecting the car, he found that a small piece of plastic trim had fallen onto the car’s exhaust in the engine compartment and had caught fire.
Fischer said crews left the high school by 2:23 p.m. to prevent a traffic jam while students were being dismissed for the day.
“Once we figured out that it was no big deal, we kind of hurried to pack up and get out of there before school dismissed,” Fischer said. “They’re lucky they caught it quickly enough and were able to put it out quick enough that there was no damage done to the car, except for whatever had caused the bit of plastic to break off.”
Burgess said he was in his office when a custodian preparing to leave for the day ran through the school’s lobby calling for help. The custodian was using his girlfriend’s car to get to work and the engine compartment was on fire.
“I had my extinguisher in the back of my car, and I drove across the parking lot,” Burgess said. “We saw that the smoke was coming out of the engine bay. We opened the hood and there’s probably 6 inches of flame coming out of the back of the engine bay.”
After using the extinguisher to put out the fire, Burgess said he and Adams rolled the car 30 to 40 feet away from the line of cars in case the car reignited.
Burgess has worked as a school resource officer at Northwest for two years. He has been with the Sheriff’s Office for six years.
“My job is to make sure the student body is safe,” Burgess said. “They’re here to learn, first and foremost, and I work to make sure everyone can do that safely.”