Bastrop Police Cpl. Chris Chavez was in his patrol car outside the Chevron gas station on Texas 71 in Bastrop when he got the call: Sixty-six-year-old Cynthia Demeritt was trapped in her bedroom that was
quickly filling with smoke and she could see flames. It was just after 4 p.m. on Jan. 4, and Chavez raced to the Walnut Ridge Apartments just up the highway. When he arrived, he could see a group of people clustered at the window of a first-floor apartment and another officer, Monty Sanford, peering inside with a flashlight. Heat and smoke were pouring out of the living room, Chavez said. Sanford called to the woman inside to “come to the light.” Disabled and recently released from the hospital after surgery, Demeritt didn’t respond. Seconds later, the two men broke the window and Chavez jumped inside the burning apartment to rescue her.