By Nigel Maxwell

P.A. officer rescues man from grass fire

May 24, 2016 | 5:00 PM

Prince Albert Const. Luke Torgunrud does not consider himself a hero, just someone doing his job.

His actions on the morning of May 15 would say otherwise. 

Torgunrud was on duty driving west on 15th St. W. when he noticed smoke coming from behind Superstore.  When he went over to take a closer look he discovered a grass fire burning out of control.

“I started walking towards it and I saw a head pop up,” he said.

Torgunrud found a man lying in the grass fire.  The man was immobile, had a badly burned leg and his jacket had melted to his back.

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“I grabbed him from underneath both arms and I just started dragging him back.  I probably dragged him about 100 feet to get him out of there,” Torgunrud said.

Once the man was out of harm’s way, Torgunrud proceeded to call for help, requesting an ambulance for the man.

Reflecting back on the experience, Torgunrud said his conversation with the man was very brief.

“I was trying to ask him what was going one and he was kind of like mumbling a little bit.  At that point the flame were right there and I was like ‘I gotta get you outta here before we get engulfed by the rest of these flames.’”

The man was 61 years old.

Const. Torgunrud has been with the Prince Albert Police Service for three years, and has been working the street for two years.

“I definitely don’t consider myself a hero because I work with heroes every day, people I work with do this every day,” he said.

Torgunrud does admit it feels good knowing he was able to help save somebody’s life.

“You do get some job satisfaction out of that, which is good,” he said.

nmaxwell@panow.com

On twitter: @nigelmaxwell