BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Gulf Shores Police officer Christopher Bagby was on patrol Aug. 13, 2010, when he saw an overturned vehicle in flames on Fort Morgan Road.

Bagby pulled a male from the wreckage and used his uniform shirt to smother flames on the man’s body. He returned to the vehicle to rescue the woman, but she was trapped.

Arriving officers had to pull Bagby from the vehicle. Burned himself, Bagby then put the male on his back and carried him away from the scene moments before the vehicle exploded.

Bagby’s heroic rescue efforts sent reverberations throughout Baldwin County and the state. He received the Optimist Club of Perdido Bay’s Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Tuesday during a Baldwin County Commission meeting in Bay Minette.

On Thursday, he received the Law Enforcement Medal of Honor in Montgomery duing a joint session of the House and Senate.