Nashville Mayor, Police Chief Commend Officers Who Evacuated Residents Before Explosion: ‘Their Actions Saved Lives’

Officers in Nashville evacuated residents on Christmas before the explosion that damaged buildings. Authorities are still investigating the matter.

During a press conference on Sunday, Nashville officials held a press conference with the five of the six officers who evacuated residents and commended their life-saving efforts.

Mayor John Cooper talked about the rebuilding efforts underway before saying, “I want to recognize our six officers who saved lives here in Nashville, it’s a great thing that our city has such heros.”

He listed Officers Richard Luellen, Amanda Topping, Michael Sipos, James Wells, Brenna Hosey, and Timothy Miller, and said, “Their actions saved lives. And I think they may consider what they did was just a regular part of their duties, but we in Nashville know it was extraordinary. And it’s thrilling to have them in our community and we need to recognize their heroism.”

Police chief John Drake started his remarks by emphasizing “we feel Nashville is safe” and that there are “no known threats against the city at this time.”

He went on to praise the officers for their actions before the explosion and said, “They may not think they’re heroes because they go about this job each and every day, but they are our heroes and they had a really heroic effort that morning.”

The officers spoke one by one about their efforts to evacuate residents and them witnessing the explosion at it happened.

Offier Amanda Topping said, “I will never forget the windows shattering after the blast, all around me, kind of looked like a big prop from a movie scene, all the glass breaking at once. It hit me all over.”