At around 10 p.m. on the night of January 5, 2024, Woodstock police officer Kevin Haines guided me out of my burning apartment and down the stairs to safety. If Haines hadn’t kicked open my door that night, I likely wouldn’t be around to write this story.
For his actions, the Ulster County Police Chiefs’ Association’s annual dinner this May 28 awarded Haines a meritorious service award for heroism.
“Had it not been for officer Haines’ quick and heroic actions, the male would have died or been seriously injured. The citizens of Woodstock and the Woodstock Police Department are extremely lucky to have officer Haines as an officer,” sergeant Adam McGrath wrote in a letter to the town board after the rescue. “I am also personally proud of officer Haines for his life-saving actions on this day and the work he performs on a daily basis.”
“Come here, come here”
My own recollection of that night is foggy at best. I was disoriented and barely conscious, bleeding from my ears, nose and face.
I asked Haines to explain to me what had happened that night. “There was literally about to be a shift change,” Haines, 24 years old, began. “I was putting my car back in the garage. We had a call for a structure fire at your address.”
Haines got back in his car and raced to my apartment a few blocks from the police station.
“I was the first one there,” he continued. “I get out. Your neighbor downstairs said there’s someone inside screaming for help. So I go through the door and I hear you screaming. Help, help, help.
So I go upstairs. I see smoke going through your door. I’m like, Oh, Jesus, what’s going on? So I try to open your door. It was locked.
“I then kicked your door down. It took one kick. I see you inside. You have no idea where you are. It’s all smoky. I think there was a fire by your kitchen. So I go in, take a flashlight, and help you.
I say, come here, come here. You grab me. We slowly kind of walk out down the stairs.”
At that point, Woodstock police officer Corey Schmidt arrived on the scene and helped Haines bring me the rest of the way out.
The sheriff’s deputies got there probably about a minute later, Haines estimated. “And EMS and everyone started swarming in. That’s kind of how it ends up,” he said.
No complaints here
It was an experience Haines had never thought of or imagined before, he said.
The fire department scolded him for kicking down the door. “They said, god forbid it was a bigger fire,” he said, noting the action could have fed oxygen to the fire and made it worse.
“I didn’t know. I’m still going to do it anyway,” he said. “I’d rather save someone than not. That’s just kind of how I am.”
I had the distinction of being the first rescuee for Haines, who has been with the department for about three years. Woodstock is Haines’ first job out of the police academy and the only department to which he applied.
Haines grew up in Saugerties. He said he never came to Woodstock until he took the police position.
“I love it here,” he said. “I would not change it. I have no plans of leaving. I love the people, the community loves me. It’s a fun place to work, the co-workers are awesome, the chief’s awesome. I’ve got no complaints here.”
“We try to help people”
Other than pulling me out of a fire, Haines said there is the occasional wild call. He’s responded to subjects barricading themselves in their homes, a kidnapping in which a man attempted to get a child into his car, and a male with a hatchet at the Sunflower food market.
While the more serious calls tend to happen during the midnight shift, any type of call can happen during his 3 to 11 p.m. shift.
“We had a snake call. I don’t like snakes, but we do what we’ve got to do,” Haines said. “That’s what I think is a good thing about Woodstock. We care about people. So we try to help people out as much as we can.”
Haines lives in Saugerties with his cat and has family, including his father, nearby. He has a twin sister and a brother. He hopes to buy a home within the next year or two.
I am grateful officer Haines was there that night. I am thankful for the assistance of the rescue squad, of the fire department volunteers who rescued my cat, and of all the first responders who came.
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