Police officer, off-duty firefighter save woman from burning vehicle: ‘Right place, right time’

A police officer and off-duty firefighter worked together to rescue a woman from her burning vehicle after a cement truck hit her Nissan pickup, causing it to roll over and burst into flames.

The dramatic incident happened on the U.S. 60 westbound highway near Val Vista in Arizona shortly before 7 a.m. on Feb. 18, according to Chandler Police. 

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The two heroes who sprang into action, Chandler Police Motor Officer Brian Larison and Peoria off-duty firefighter Asa Paguia, are both Marine veterans and trained for situations like these, FOX 10 reported.

Larison, who doesn’t normally commute on U.S. 60 westbound for Chandler P.D., was the first one on the scene of the fiery crash.

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“The thought of human life perishing by flames. I just, you know, I was like, ‘I cannot let this happen’,” Larison said.

To help save the woman trapped in the driver’s seat, Larison used his baton to break the window. But just as the woman began to escape, the truck fell backward onto all four tires, bodycam footage shows.

“Then I looked, and it was an off-duty fireman, and he’s got all his fire retardant gear on. Just right place, right time,” Larison said.

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Paguia was on his way to work at the Peoria Fire Department and was running behind schedule. He had his firefighting equipment with him because he had worked an overtime shift the day before, FOX 10 reported.

“As fate would have it, Asa had worked a partial overtime shift the day before, so he had his turnouts in the trunk of his vehicle,” Brady Casson, public information officer at the Peoria Fire Department, told Fox News Digital in an email. “When Asa saw the CPD officer and bystanders attempting to rescue the victim, he quickly put on his protective equipment and jumped into action.”

Paguia pulled the woman out of the burning vehicle, and the two first responders worked together to move her away from the site of the flames while Fire and EMS resources responded to the scene. The woman was then transported to the hospital where she is expected to make a full recovery. Her first phone call was to her husband, according to FOX 10. 

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“The way we operate is we risk a lot to save a lot,” Paguia said. “So I decided it was worth the risk to get that patient out of there.”

Chandler Police did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.