A police officer in Fraser, Michigan is being hailed as a hero after dashcam footage of him rescuing a woman from a truck quickly becoming engulfed in flames was released to the media. The footage is definitely a nail-biting scenario where seconds count as the disoriented woman tries staying inside the cab while the inferno spreads rapidly.
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Fortunately, first of the scene was Officer Cameron Rieper who just so happened to be a firefighter previously. While that might sound like a strange combination given the historical ribbing cops and firemen given each other, in this case the hybrid training truly helped.
Officer Rieper was able to drag the woman out of the truck before she was incinerated, although she did put up a bit of a fight. Disoriented and possibly suffering from a medical episode, she kept grabbing the steering wheel as if she was going to drive out the ditch the pickup spun into originally.
We can imagine the heat from those flames growing not only by the gas tank but also in the engine compartment had to be intense at that point. Then there’s all the smoke. The woman had to be pretty out of it to not be trying anything she could to get out of the truck.
There’s no doubt Officer Rieper saved this woman’s life. While she did end up in the hospital, she suffered only non-life-threatening injuries. It easily could have gone far worse.
While there’s little chance you’ll ever come across this kind of situation, Officer Rieper did offer some tips in his interview with Fox2 Detroit. “Do your best to try to assist the driver,” he said. “Yell to them to get out of the car, informing our dispatch exactly what’s going on just so we have accurate information when we get on scene and we know what we’re walking into.”
Image via YouTube
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