Police officers pulled a sleeping man from his burning bed during a Thursday morning apartment fire.

Fire officials suspect David Mo, 55, was smoking a cigarette when he went to bed in his 802 Interstate Ave. apartment, Bismarck Police Lt. Dan Donlin said.

Bismarck Police Officer Joe Arenz was among the four officers who responded to the 1:11 a.m. fire alarm. Arenz said when he arrived with trainee Lynn Wanner, officers Preston McKay and Ryan O'Donnell were already evacuating the apartment complex.

"We have to take our own safety into account, and if we go in and get trapped, it just gives the firefighters more to worry about," Arenz said. "If there had been flames coming out we wouldn't have gone in there, but with all the smoke we wanted to make sure to get everyone out of there."

Arenz moved through the smoke-filled halls to double-check apartment 14. Inside the apartment, he discovered Mo covered up by blankets.

Arenz said O'Donnell and a firefighter helped him try to rouse the man.

"He was pretty incoherent," Arenz said. "We shook him and yelled at him to get up."

When he didn't respond, Arenz said he grabbed Mo by his ankles and "yanked" him off of the bed. That's when they noticed smoke and flames coming from the mattress - the origin of the fire.

"It was burning underneath him," Arenz said.

Mo woke up and was led outside to safety. The rest of the apartment complex also was evacuated.

Firefighters doused the fire with an extinguisher and pulled the mattress and boxspring outside, Bismarck Assistant Fire Chief Kermit Schaefer said. There was light smoke damage to the apartment complex, and Mo's apartment - where the fire originated - suffered more extensive smoke damage, Schaefer said.

Schaefer said Mo and the other apartment residents were fortunate. Had the smoke not been immediately reported, the flames likely would have spread rapidly and the smoke-filled halls would have hindered their escape.

(Reach reporter Mike Albrecht at 250-8261 or cops@ndonline.com.)