An officer who pulled a man from a burning wreckage in Alice Springs this morning said he was “just doing his job”, when he saved the man’s life.
A 53-year-old man is believed to have suffered a medical episode whilst on his way to work this morning, resulting in a single vehicle crash into vacant land off Larapinta Drive just before 8am today.
Two officers were travelling in the area at the time when they heard the collision and saw a cloud of dust over the crash scene.
Officers were among the first to arrive on scene, and immediately ran to the crashed vehicle to remove the man from the burning ute.
“I ran over and immediately saw the engine bay was on fire and I couldn’t get to the driver’s side door because of the fire,” said the officer.
By this time, the car cab had filled with smoke and a fire in the engine bay was gradually getting bigger by the second.
“I went to the passenger door, but I could only partially open it because of the angle of the car. Then two guys helped by ripping the door open and I was able to lean in and pushed the airbags away. I saw the driver, who was semi-conscious, so I started to chat with him and told him to lift his legs out of the foot-well so I could get him out.”
The officer managed to safely extract the driver out of the now-burning vehicle, and together with another officer and a member of the public – carried the man to the footpath for treatment.
Officers stayed with the man until the arrival of paramedics, who then transported the driver to the Alice Springs Hospital for treatment.
Fire crews arrived on scene and successfully extinguished the fire and made the area safe.
“Thankfully his legs weren’t caught in the foot-well,” said the officer. “If his legs had been stuck it would have been horrific.”
The officer, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he was only doing his job “that’s what we go to work for everyday, it’s the positive results.”
