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Officer Douglas L. Hipple, 38, was badly burned and one woman later died after he ran into a burning Warren, Ohio, group home on April 28, 2009, to reach three residents trapped on the second floor, according to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.

The fire broke out at the two-story group home while Hipple was on duty nearby. A caregiver told him three women who lived at the home were upstairs, the commission said.

Hipple entered through the front door and climbed the stairs but was driven back by heavy smoke. He went up a second time, called out to the women through near-zero visibility, gathered them at the top of the stairs and tried to get them out through a bedroom window as conditions worsened.

Hipple and two of the residents, Donna Cassidy, 52, and Sheree J. Egry, 52, were overcome by smoke in one bedroom. The third woman, Melissa S. Watson, 44, was overcome in an adjoining room. Firefighters arrived, pulled all four out and took them to a hospital.

Watson died of smoke inhalation on July 8, 2009. Cassidy, Egry and Hipple survived with smoke inhalation and burns as severe as third-degree. Burns covered 14 percent of Hipple's body, and he was disabled for more than a year.

In September 2010 the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission named Hipple a recipient of its Carnegie Medal for the rescue attempt. The audio posted here is police and fire radio traffic recorded during the response to the fire.