Three Police Officers Receive Medal of Valor
Three Tustin police officers were presented with the department’s highest honor for bravery, the Medal of Valor, at a City Council meeting Monday.
Officers Keith Arrants, Darryle Mendes and Nasario Solis were given the medals for their heroic actions during an October 1996 fire that destroyed 10 homes and damaged 16 others in an unincorporated area north of Tustin.
Mayor Jeffery M. Thomas said the three officers were the first to arrive on the scene after Arrants saw smoke rising in the Lemon Heights area.
As the blaze quickly spread and before firefighters arrived, the officers helped rescue residents from burning homes and evacuate others whose homes were threatened.
“Without the officers’ immediate actions, numerous persons would have died,” Thomas said.
The Medal of Valor was last presented in 1973, Police Chief Steven Foster said.
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