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Officer Receives Honor For Heroism After Apartment Explosion

SILVER SPRING, Md. (WJZ/AP) — The Montgomery County police officer who was the first to respond to a gas explosion and fire that killed seven people and injured dozens of others at an apartment complex last year has received his department's highest honor.

Officer Jeff Hughes received the department's Medal of Valor Wednesday for his bravery, it was a touching honor because he was friends with one of the seven victims who died in the explosion.

"I'm very honored to be awarded this though our department, but there's so many other officers, firefighters," Hughes said.

"It's just, there's someone that I'm never going to see again and I might not have been best of friends with him but he's at least someone in the community that I knew, so that hurts," Hughes said.

Hughes spoke about 65-year-old Saul Paniagua, one of seven victims who died in in the Flower Branch Apartment explosion.

Hughes was a part time courtesy officer at the complex for the past three years.

Hughes was working off duty for the Flower Branch apartments in Silver Spring the night of Aug. 10 when the explosion occurred. Hughes ran to help a family out of the rubble and then went to the adjacent buildings to pull fire alarms and get more than 100 people out.

"My body was like you know, we need to move now," Hughes said.

Searchers eventually recovered seven bodies from the rubble left behind by the explosion, which was caused by a natural gas leak and shook homes more than a mile away.

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(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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