Watch as Michigan police rescue a trapped woman as flames quickly engulf the car

By means of Susan Field

Source Daily Tribune, Royal Oak, Mich.

Two Mount Pleasant police officers are credited with saving a woman’s life from a burning vehicle after a crash on Sunday evening – the eve of National First Aid Day.

Mount Pleasant Police Chief Paul Lauria showed bodycam video from the crash scene Monday during a regular city commission meeting.

Lauria told commissioners that public safety jobs are often thankless and dangerous and said he wanted to show a small slice of what police and firefighters do on a regular basis.

Watch a video from the police here.

Lauria showed the two-minute video that started with Sgt. Jonathon Straus and Officer Tyler Burrows responded to a crash shortly before 10 p.m. at the northbound Mission roundabout, ran to the vehicle as it became fully engulfed in flames and used an ax to carefully cut a hole in the windshield large enough to clear the to get hold of 22. year-old Sterling Heights woman from the car, which was on its side.

“I can guarantee you, another 20 seconds and someone would have been killed,” Lauria said after the bodycam video ended, noting that the victim was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Lauria said police and firefighters don’t need to be thanked for what they do, but he wanted to draw attention to the day set aside to honor first responders with the dangers they face, without knowing what the next day, the next hour or the next minute will bring.

Lauria, who told commissioners that he and other first responders spent part of the day Monday at a school, a daycare center and a retirement home to celebrate First Responder Day, said he wants residents to know they can be proud rely on their police and fire departments, and that they can rely on the capabilities of their first responders.

“I challenge any of you to find a police department that will respond to a vehicle that is on its side and leaking gas and fuel,” Lauria said. “Most people would have swung that ax at the windshield.

“You don’t know where the victim is inside.”

Instead of swinging the ax with full force, first responders made sure the victim would not sustain further injuries, Lauria said.

Lauria’s comments were met with applause from those in attendance at Monday night’s City Commission meeting.

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