Officer Rogers ran into the smoke and carried Marlowe out

A Chattanooga police officer reached the scene of a Hixson apartment fire on May 1 before the fire trucks did, which is not what police officers are trained for. Officer Rogers arrived first, learned from neighbors that a family was still inside, and ran into the smoke with flames already visible at the entrance. He carried 4-year-old Marlowe Blaylock out while her mother, Rachel Blaylock, followed with her 10-year-old son, Charles. Body camera footage later showed Rogers trying to fight the flames himself with a fire extinguisher until firefighters arrived. No one was injured. Blaylock told WTVC she keeps replaying the moments before he showed up. "I keep thinking back: 'How was I going to get two kids down the stairs?'" she said. Rogers, she added, kept trying to go back up the stairs even after she told him the apartment was empty.