Jonathon Baez

Jonathon Baez saved two girls from burning, Mesa, Arizona, February 18, 2022. The sisters, 2 and 6, were in a bedroom of their second-floor apartment when flames broke out in the apartment. Baez, 25, painter, was nearby and responded. After Baez entered the front of the building and retreated due to dire conditions there, he approached the rear of the building and climbed atop a 6-foot-tall storage shed. Despite dense smoke issuing from the window and flames on the nearby balcony, Baez jumped and reached up to the broken-out window of the bedroom about 6 feet above the shed and pulled the window frame off to access the opening. Baez jumped up to enter through the broken-out window to his waist and found the younger girl just inside. Baez lifted her and held her to his body, retreated to the shed, and handed her to an officer there. After learning that the older girl was still inside, Baez returned to the window and fully climbed inside the bedroom. Crawling on his hands and knees, he reached the older girl at a point about 10 feet from the window in a closet after retreating once for a breath of fresh air. Baez found her hand, grasped it, and lifted her, and then standing, he walked back to the window. Baez handed her down to another officer who had responded onto the shed. Baez exited the bedroom through the window opening and retreated to safety. Both girls were taken by ambulance to the hospital and treated for smoke inhalation, and the younger girl also suffered cuts to her thigh, feet and one of her hands. They both recovered. Baez suffered minor smoke inhalation and a cut to his right hand but did not require medical treatment. He recovered.