KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) -
A family said they are lucky to be alive, thanks to a couple of police officers.
Two Kansas City, KS, police officers said they were just doing their jobs early Sunday morning when they saved a family of five from a house fire.
"It's just kind of instincts. What you need to do you just get done, you don't think twice about it," Patrolman Lewis Edwards said.
That's how Edwards, an officer who's been on the force for 10 years, describes the frantic few minutes after he was on routine patrol and smelled smoke near 10th Street and Ann Avenue about 3 a.m. When he drove around to the alley behind the house, Edwards saw smoke pouring out the back.
"I saw cars out front so I assumed there'd be a family inside. I started beating on the door, kicking at it to alert them," Edwards said.
Sgt. Angela Joyce rushed to join Edwards to get everyone out of the burning home.
"We were beating on every window and door and, at one point, a boy's head popped up in the upper bedroom window and we yelled to get out. About that time someone opened the door. It was getting to the point that we were going to break some windows in order to get in," Joyce said.
The Chavez family, consisting of two adults and three kids, calls the officers and the rest of the East Patrol Shift One heroes.
"We were all sound asleep. We didn't know what was happening," Nefi Chavez said.
Edwards said it's just part of the job.
"This is why I became a police officer, this is what I do every day," he said. "By the grace of God we were in the area and were able to find them, that's good enough for me."
"They have each other, they're not mourning a death. I don't know what else you say to that," Joyce said.
Fire investigators said the cause of the fire was electrical. They estimate $35,000 in damage to the home.
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