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Braveheart

As explosions continued, Tavares police officer Michael Woods aided injured employee

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Gazing into the night sky, Cpl. Michael Woods saw propane tanks ignite into self-propelled rockets and heard them whistle in fl ight as they landed in every direction.

“Everywhere I looked,” he says, “I saw red molten missiles flying through the air like tracers.”

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A law enforcement officer since 1980, Woods has responded to violent deaths, suicides and plane crashes. But nothing shook him more than witnessing the massive Blue Rhino propane plant explosion in Tavares on July 29, 2013.

“I’ve never been joined the Tavares P

“I’ve never been that scared in my life,” says Woods, who joined the Tavares Police Department 23 years ago. “I was worried whether I’d make it out of there alive.”

That fear did not hinder him from performing his job in a heroic manner. One of the first officers at the scene of the explosion, he responded to a report that someone had been hit by a vehicle on County Road 448. The injured man was Kaghy Sam, a Blue Rhino employee who was struck while trying to flee the plant.

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“His left foot was positioned between his shoulder blades,” Woods says. “His femur was broken and his foot was bent like a pretzel. He was struck so hard by a Chevy Suburban that his shoes and hat were on the road. His skin looked burned and his pant legs were shredded. It was awful.”

As the series of fiery blasts continued, Woods, a former emergency medical technician, administered CPR. That’s when one of the most frightening moments of his law enforcement career occurred. A propane tank struck the right front fender of his Chevrolet Tahoe police vehicle.

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“It felt like I had been hit by an elephant,” Woods says. “Had it landed several feet higher it would have gone right through my windshield.”

Woods carefully loaded Sam into his Tahoe and drove him to the nearest command station. From there, the victim was airlifted to Ocala Regional Medical Center and treated for broken bones and second- and third-degree burns.

Last September, Woods was given the Medal of Valor for his bravery during extremely dangerous conditions. It’s the highest honor a police officer can receive, yet he remains humble.

“I told our chief that I should not be recognized because I was just doing my job,” he says. “I just happened to be the officer who was closest to this man. Anyone would have done what I did. There was nothing heroic about it.”

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