MCCAMMON — Bannock County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Mike Jons doesn’t call himself a hero, but his actions say otherwise.

When he arrived on the scene of a burning mobile home last Thursday in McCammon, he found a man trapped in a bedroom, smoke pouring over his face, his hands stretched through a window too small to climb out of.

Jons and a neighbor started prying the window free until they felt the wall itself give way. In a matter of seconds, the two of them pulled at the mobile home until it came apart, and pulled the man outside to safety.

Jons had raced to the home from his post patrolling a construction crossover just north of Exit 47. Within 10 minutes, he pulled up and helped save a man desperate for someone to come to his aid.

The man was taken to a hospital for further treatment. As of this week, he remains in intensive care, and Jons has not been able to speak with him since the rescue.

Even with his heroics, Jons humbly points to other people as who he thinks are the real heroes.

“People say I’m a hero. I was just doing my job trying to help people in need. I was in the right place at the right time,” Jons said. “Any one of our patrolmen would have done the same thing.”

Jons specifically points to the neighbor, who wishes to not be identified, and EMS for their help in the incident.

“The neighbor and the EMS that showed up before the paid medical team, I’d say, are heroes,” he said. “They definitely need to receive some recognition for their willingness to come out on their own time and help out.”

Jons has been a cop since 2001, starting at the sheriff’s office in the jail, where he worked for nearly seven years before moving to patrol.

Since then, he’s spent time on SWAT and as a K9 handler, though most of his career has been on patrol. He was promoted to sergeant a little over a year and a half ago, capping off almost 25 years of service.

This wasn’t the first time Jons has pulled someone from a burning home. Several years ago, he helped rescue homeowners from a house fire on Virginia Road, when a garage went up in flames in the middle of the night.

Jons has always been around police stations, and from a young age, wearing the badge himself piqued his interest.

In grade school, he had an assignment where he had to write down what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he wrote down words he now gets to live: “I want to be a police officer.”

Jons’ father worked in maintenance for a police station and was a big influence in him becoming a police officer.

“When it came time for me to start a career in life, he’s like, put an application in at the sheriff’s office,” Jons said. “It took me a couple weeks to decide to do it, but I finally did, and I’ve been there since.”

Ever since that moment he became a cop and got his gun and badge, he has served the community, with the people being his favorite part of the job.

“There’s been times I’ve gone and got tools from my own house to change a tire, or I’ve even gone and got a gallon of gas from home just to get someone to the gas station,” Jons said. “I like doing this job to help people that sometimes are down on their luck.”

That desire to help has served him well for 25 years and was especially helpful in last week’s incident.

Jons and every police officer across the nation step out of their houses not knowing if they will walk back in that same door after their shift.

“It’s been a good career, definitely a lot of ups and downs,” Jons said. “We see the worst of people, and sometimes we see the good, but it’s always good when we’re able to help somebody and make others feel better.”