Trooper who saved Ladoga family a finalist for national award

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

LADOGA -- An Indiana State Police trooper from the Lafayette Post, who risked his life and entered a burning Ladoga home to save three people last April, has been named a finalist for Trooper of the Year honors.

Senior Trooper Ryan Winters has been named as a finalist for the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police)/Motorola Trooper of the Year from the North Central region.

Ryan Winters

Winters was nominated by Lafayette District Commander Lt. Thomas McKee for his actions on April 10, 2014. While leaving his Ladoga home to begin his regular shift just before 7 a.m., Winters noticed the house at 226 N. Walnut St. was on fire. Knowing the residents of that house were elderly with limited mobility, he notified the dispatch center of the location and went to the residence himself.

Trooper Winters initially found the southwest corner of the house was engulfed in flames. Pounding on the front door, he got no response. Finding the door unlocked he went inside, finding the homeowners' grandson 11-year-old Colin Roe sleeping on a couch in the living room. The sound of the fire was so loud, the trooper said he could not hear smoke alarms going off as Roe was sleeping with headphones on.

With smoke building up in the house and only a few feet from the first-floor ceiling, Winters woke up Roe and took him outside. Learning that the boy's grandparents were asleep in their second-floor bedroom, Trooper Winters re-entered the house and located Warren and Deny Bowling, who are both in their 70s.

According to an interview Deny Bowling gave to the media, she said the house was full of thick black smoke in the house when Winters woke up the couple. Trooper Winters guided them through the smoke, assisting them down the stairs and out of the house. Winters directed the family to a safe area and quickly performed a safety check around the outside of the house to see if there was a propane tank or any other hazardous material threatened by the fire.

Returning to the front of the house, Trooper Winters discovered that Warren Bowling had re-entered the home. Winters then entered the house for a third time, to locate Bowling as thick smoke was only a few feet from the floor.

Winters guided Bowling back out of the house to the rest of the family. By that time, the Ladoga Fire Department had arrived and began to fight the fire.

After making sure there was no one left in the house, Trooper Winters remained on the scene to assist with scene control and traffic.

It was not until Lt. Mike Hunley of the Ladoga Volunteer Fire Department called the State Police Post in Lafayette that ISP was made aware of Trooper Winters' heroic actions. Lt. Hunley is a former Montgomery County Sheriff's deputy and current Ladoga town marshal.

It is the opinion of the members of the Ladoga Fire Department on the scene, Hunley said, that were it not for Winters' actions, there would have been at least one, if not more fatalities from the fire.

Ladoga Fire Chief Reggie Perry agreed.

"We believe Officer Winters saved the family in the nick of time," he said. "I am afraid we would have had a fatal fire with multiple deaths."

Lt. Hunley also said even after the fire was out, he would not let his firemen into the structure without wearing oxygen tanks and breathing apparatus because of the toxic smoke present. However, Trooper Winters made three trips into the same environment without any kind of breathing apparatus, putting his own health and safety at risk. Winters later did go to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

"Senior Trooper Winters has been very humble about this nomination," Lafayette District Commander McKee praised, "and was just glad to be in the right spot at the right time."

Winters was picked from applications submitted to the North Central region by a majority of votes of IACP Colonels. The four regional finalists will be honored at the IACP/Motorola Trooper of the Year banquet March 27 in Alexandria, Va.

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