Body-Cam Footage Shows Police Officer Rescuing Passenger From Fiery Wreck
By ABC NEWS
August 26, 2016 12:32 AM
Good Morning America
A Georgia police officer's body-cam footage has captured his dramatic rescue of a passenger caught in an early-morning fiery SUV wreck.
Senior Police Officer Dan Whitney was responding to a 3 a.m. highway accident when the rescue occurred, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department said in an Aug. 18 YouTube video post.
In the video, a 911 caller tells a dispatcher: "We got a bad wreck out here in front of my house. ... This car gonna blow up, I believe. ... Hurry, man, or this car gonna blow up!"
The caller says someone is likely still in the vehicle but he's afraid of getting too close to check.
"I ain't going to it," the caller says. "It's going to blow up. God! Somebody in it. ... Come on!"
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Whitney found the SUV "engulfed in flames" against a tree, police said. In the body-cam footage, Whitney can be seen grabbing a fire extinguisher from his car and rushing over to the fiery scene. There, he finds the SUV ablaze and a man sticking out of a side window.
Though Whitney tries to put the fire out with the extinguisher, the blaze is overwhelming and he calls for help.
"I need a fire extinguisher or a garden hose. Get a garden hose!" he can be heard screaming on the video.
Whitney was able to bend the door frame and pull the man, a passenger in the car, out of the car, police said. Body-cam footage showed the man lying on the grass and then the video ends. Police said a blast under the hood knocked off Whitney's body cam as well as his hat. Police said the driver of the car was killed in the wreck.
"Without Whitney's rescue, the passenger likely would have suffered the same tragic death as the driver, as the backseat was completely melted and gutted within minutes," police said.
Poster Comment:
Video at source.
When I worked for State of Illinois, I was out on Night Patrol and I just got finished eating breakfast at the Denny's near where I lived.
When I got in the truck and got ready to leave, I looked and there was a car at the red light that caught fire. The driver bailed out with his stuff and I pulled up behind the car and called it in.
A cop pulled up and he got so close to the car that the flames almost singed the hair off his head. I opened the door to the truck and stepped out on the fuel tank and hollered, "There's nobody in there! He went over to the restaurant."
The cop wanted to be a hero. Better luck next time. LOL
When the fire department got there, they said they thought it was an accident. They had to break out the hose to put out the fire. Lucky I was there because all that water turned to ice and I had to salt it down.