They are students at Copper Hills High School who recently risked their own lives by breaking down a front door and running into a burning home hoping to save the lives of others.

On this episode of the Supercast, join us as we take you inside the big surprise where the students received a military style “Honor of Excellence” award for going above and beyond and being exemplary citizens.

Audio Transcription

Heidi Jacobson:
They're heroes, honestly. Carter's like, "I'm not a hero.” He just did what he thought was right.

Cammerin Inselsberger:
My buddy Gabriel came outside and said, "Hey, there's a fire down the street." And then I remember Carter looking distinctly at me and said, "Well, come on, let's go do something."

Zera Gonzales:
We truly saw our sense of community in our neighborhood, especially with our boys again. We're so willing and selfless and risked so much.

[Music]

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are students at Copper Hills High who recently risked their own lives by breaking down a front door and running into a burning home, hoping to save the lives of others. On this episode of the Supercast, join us as we take you inside the big surprise where the students received a military-style Honor of Excellence Award for going above and beyond and being exemplary citizens.

[Music]

Anthony Godfrey:
We take you now to the ceremony honoring the boys who saved two dogs.

[Music]

Female Voice:
We would like to reunite you this morning with Rocky and Simba, who you saved, and we'd have the Gonzales family come on in with the animals. They want to thank you.

Matt Alvernaz:
My name is Matt Alvernaz. I'm the Safety and Security Director for the Jordan School District. During my 20 years of combined service in both the military and law enforcement, I've had the privilege of taking part in the longstanding tradition of the Challenge Coin. The Challenge Coin is something that is given as a token of appreciation and respect for those who go above and beyond the regular everyday expectations of society. Each of these coins, as we give them out there, they're unique and there's only so many made. So once you're given one, then hang on to it. They’re never going to be made again. There's something that gets collected and it's something that's honored among the uniform services and the tradition I want to carry out and give to you guys. So these coins, they're honored in a way of a traditional handoff and it's given through a handshake. Everything on this coin means something. If you guys want to go over what they all represent, you can do that. So I want to congratulate you guys in the traditional way.

Boys:
Thank you.

[applause]

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with the three students who saved the two dogs from the fire in West Jordan City. Thank you very much for taking time. Will you introduce yourself and tell us your name, grade, and what programs you're in?

Cammerin Inselsberger:
My name is Cammerin Inselsberger. I am a senior at Copper Hills High School and I am in no current programs, but I was in diesel tech.

Carter Jacobson:
I'm Carter Jacobson. I go to Copper Hills. I am a senior as well and I'm in the diesel program at J Tech.

Gabriel Hernandez:
I'm Gabriel Hernandez and I'm a senior at Copper Hills and I'm also in the J Tech diesel program.

Anthony Godfrey:
So did you know each other before the diesel program or is that how you met?

Carter Jacobson:
No, we knew each other before. I knew Cammerin for like three years. He kind of introduced me to it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Why don't you talk me through what happened, everything from spotting the fire to going in and saving the dogs?

Cammerin Inselsberger:
We were doing yard work out back at my house and then we went. My buddy Gabriel came outside and said, "Hey, there's a fire down the street." And then I remember Carter looking distinctly at me and said, "Well, come on, let's go do something." And so I jumped the fence. They ran around and we just ended up down the street and just seeing if anybody was there that was getting hurt or something.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you first arrived, what did you think? Did you think that maybe there was somebody in the house?

Gabriel Hernandez:
We did after we saw the truck in the driveway and the neighbor in front of the house telling us that they haven't checked on the house yet. They just saw the fire. So we went to the window to see if there was somebody inside and we kept banging on the door. Nobody answered and Carter sees a little dog running across the hallway.

Anthony Godfrey:
That was enough to decide.

Gabriel Hernandez:
That was more than enough.

Anthony Godfrey:
There are dogs in there and we need to get in there.

Gabriel Hernandez:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now I watched on the camera how you approached the door. Tell me about working on getting in the front door.

Carter Jacobson:
I think my buddy's dead. Cammerin’s dead. He tried to shoulder the door first. And then I think they were thinking about breaking down the window, but I was like, "I'm just going to try to kick the door." Donkey kicked it. And so it started working. The bottom of the door cracked. I didn't let game everyone else's motivation to keep going. We kicked it down.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now you kicked it facing the door and then the donkey kick turned around.

Carter Jacobson:
I knew kicking it forward wouldn't work anymore. And then kicking it like a donkey kick would be more better because my foot’s more like flush to the door. I don't know. It was just something I thought about.

Anthony Godfrey:
In the moment you just thought about trying something different. What I was impressed with is that you didn't say, "Well, he tried to shoulder. I tried to kick it in. It didn't work." You just kept going and kept trying to be sure that you got in.

Carter Jacobson:
Yeah, it was either that or the window.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you got in, you still didn't know whether it was just dogs or whether there was someone in there who had maybe passed out or whatever. So what did you do once you got in?

Gabriel Hernandez:
I ran straight for the bathroom thinking it was a bedroom and then the propane tank caught fire and shot fire right through the window.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. What went through your mind at that moment?

Gabriel Hernandez:
I should get out of there.

Anthony Godfrey:
So where were the dogs when you got in?

Carter Jacobson:
I think they were... So when we walked in, Gabriel went to the bathroom and I saw the dog dart towards the kitchen. So when I walked in, they were just sitting in the laundry room, curled up in the corner. The big dog was kind of laying in front of the smaller dog protecting it.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you approached the dogs, did you have to carry them out or were you able to help them out?

Carter Jacobson:
No, we had to carry them out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did they let you approach?

Carter Jacobson:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
I wondered whether in that moment they might be afraid and might not be cooperative as you're trying to say that.

Cammerin Inselsberger:
Yeah, they were mostly cowered down in the corner of the laundry room and so they didn't try to fight back or anything. So it's not like either of us three got hurt by the dogs because they knew something was up and so it was more so just letting us take them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Describe what it looked like inside the house. What was that like?

Carter Jacobson:
It was more... I feel like it was quiet. It was more calm before the storm because when we got in there, the side of the house was on fire. It wasn't as intense. But as soon as we got out, the rest of the house started catching on fire and the smoke detectors went off.

Anthony Godfrey:
How soon after you left the house did the fire department arrive?

Carter Jacobson:
I would say a minute after. A couple of minutes after. It was more hectic for them to get in because people were trying to drive down and see the fire and walk down so there was a lot of people blocking the street.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now the fire department said that you were helpful because you were first on scene. What was some of the information that you shared with them that was helpful?

Cammerin Inselsberger:
We saw that their propane tank started catching fire from the trailers because there was a trailer and there was one propane tank on it and there was another one on the ground. But there were also two in the back of the trailer so we were able to tell them that we saw the fire start in the back area of the house next to the house that we're in now.

Anthony Godfrey:
So they were able to see, they were able to better understand what happened because you were there. One of the things that we've trained our employees on over the years is that when you come up on an emergency you don't wait for someone else to come. You jump in and you do everything that you can. A lot of times people wait for an expert, you know, someone is bleeding or someone is hurt and they wait until someone else comes to do it because they're afraid of making a mistake. But I'm so impressed with the courage that you showed jumping in and just doing what needed to be done. Can you remember what was running through your mind as you went into the ho...