Watch Michigan police rescue trapped woman as flames quickly engulf car

By Zuzanna Pole

Source Daily Tribune, Royal Oak, Michigan.

Two police officers in Mt. Pleasant is credited with saving a woman’s life from a burning vehicle after a crash Sunday night – the eve of National Emergency Service Day.

Mt Pleasant Police Chief Paul Lauria showed body camera footage from the scene of the crash during a regular city commission meeting on Monday.

Telling commissioners that public safety jobs are often thankless and dangerous, Lauria said he wanted to show a small part of what police and firefighters do every day.

Watch the video recorded by police here.

Lauria showed a two-minute video that began with the words of Sgt. Jonathon Straus and Officer Tyler Burrows, while responding to a crash shortly before 10 p.m. at the north Mission roundabout, ran toward the vehicle while it was fully engulfed in flames and used an ax to carefully cut a hole large enough in the windshield to gain access to A 22-year-old woman from Sterling Heights took the car out of the car, which was lying on its side.

“I can guarantee that another 20 seconds and death would have been on our hands,” Lauria said after the body camera footage 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 on a day set aside to honor first responders, he wanted to highlight the dangers they face, never knowing what the next day, hour or minute will bring.

Lauria, who told commissioners that he and other first responders spent part of the day Monday at the school, day care center and retirement home to honor First Responder Day, said he wants residents to know they can be proud of their police and fire departments fire department, and that they can be confident in the skills of their rescuers.

“I urge each of you to find a police department that will respond when a vehicle rolls over on its side and is leaking gas and fuel,” Lauria said. “Most people would swing that ax at their windshield.

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

Lauria said that instead of swinging the ax with full force, rescuers were careful not to cause further injury to the victim.

Lauria’s remarks were met with applause from those attending Monday evening’s city commission meeting.

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