It was a calm night, and Sergeant Josh Mazone used the time to complete weapons inspections for Officers Matthew Duffy and Michael Christopher. Rather than go their separate ways when finished, the three stayed and chatted for a while, enjoying the quiet.

“If we hadn’t done that” Mazone realized, “if we had just done the weapons inspections and then parted ways, Duffy and I would not have been where we were at when the call came out.”

The call was unlike any Mazone had responded to before.

Born and raised in Colorado, Mazone had always felt compelled to help others, but it wasn’t until his late twenties that he decided to pursue a career in uniform.

After college, Mazone was working as a welder. “It just wasn’t clicking.” Almost as if by fate, he “had an opportunity to do some ride-alongs with a good friend of mine that I went to high school with...and I got hooked.”

When he was introduced to policing, Mazone knew his desire to help people had brought him to this profession. He finally knew what he wanted to do. He knew how he could make a difference.

He heard the call from dispatch: ‘shots fired and someone screaming.’

Mazone and Duffy were both close to the call location, having stayed longer after weapons inspection. Both men headed towards the call, with Duffy arriving first. The update he radioed caught Mazone off guard:

Mazone knew he and Duffy needed to work fast “or we’re just gonna stand here and watch this place burn.”

Not hesitating, he and Duffy went into the burning building to evacuate the apartment’s residents.

“It was pretty intense from that point on. The temperature of the air was pretty shocking to me” he admitted.

The heat and smoke only reminded the duo how little time they had to save people as they evacuated residents door by door. Eventually, they made it to a breezeway. There, they met other officers who had arrived to the scene, including Michael Christopher, the third officer Mazone and Duffy had been chatting with earlier in the evening.

The group split up to evacuate the second and third floors simultaneously. Mazone and Duffy were on the second floor. The pair worked their way to an apartment directly above where the fire had originated. The door to the apartment was closed and wouldn’t budge.

“I had a failed attempt at throwing my shoulder into it,” Mazone chuckled. The second attempt was more successful. “Boom. Just like that it opens.”

Inside was a family, including children. With Mazone and Duffy’s help, the entire family was able to escape.

By now, the smoke had ensnared Mazone. It became harder and harder to breathe as he and the other officers cleared the rest of the hall.

“We’re all finally at a point where we’re gonna leave, right? We’re running. Let’s go, let’s go. And, boom. We hit this wall of smoke like nothing I’ve ever seen, nothing I’ve experienced.”

The officers had reached the doorway at the end of the apartment hall — just on the other side was a breezeway. Mazone fumbled for the doorknob. As he recalls it, his hand met Duffy’s at the handle. Together, the two pushed their way to fresh air.

Mazone and Duffy were transported to the hospital where they were treated for smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning.

The fire claimed the life of one individual, a resident who lived in the apartment where the fire started. Everyone else in the complex was able to safely evacuate, in part thanks to Sergeant Mazone.

“I was right back to work the next night” shared Mazone, not dwelling on his own heroics. “Just the nature of the beast.”

For Duffy, the call ended up being one of his last. He had experienced many stressful calls during his time with Arvada Police, and the fire and his subsequent hospitalization had taken a toll on his family. “Family comes first,” affirmed Mazone with a nod. “End of story.”

“We receive a lot of great training here. You can train all you want for different things, but you never really know how you’re going to act or...how it’s going to affect you emotionally, psychologically, until it’s there.”

It’s been nearly 12 years since those ride-alongs with a friend, but Mazone’s passion for police work and service remains as strong today as it was then.

“There’s never a dull moment. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. There’s terrifying moments, there’s sad moments, there’s everything, but no one night is like the other.”