Dramatic video shows Atlanta police pulling trapped passenger out of car engulfed in flames
A very lucky passenger in a car accident in Atlanta has two police officers to thank for saving his life from an inferno consuming the vehicle.
Two officers from the Atlanta Police Department may have thought they were responding to an average car accident at about 4 a.m. Sunday, but when they arrived the front of the car was already engulfed in flames. One officer went to the trunk to grab a fire extinguisher, while the other sprinted into action to pull out the front-seat passenger, who was trapped in the mangled front of the sedan.
"You're leg is about to catch on fire, you need to pull it together and just give me whatever you have left," Brittany Williams, one of the officers involved in the rescue, told ABC News of what she said to the stuck passenger.
The small fire extinguisher fellow officer Charles Tierney was using had little effect in putting out the fire, but bystanders managed to pull out the other occupants of the car, which police said crashed into a utility pole.
"Come on get out," you can hear someone screaming in the background.
"His legs are stuck," another person yelled.
Eventually both police officers work around to the driver's side to pull the passenger out through the back door.
The officers pull the man to safety as the video ends.
"We literally like gave each other a hug at the end of it because we were just so overwhelmed," Williams told ABC News.
"It was definitely part of what we signed up for, and the pride we got out of just helping another person and helping save his life is definitely an emotional experience that I won't ever forget," Tierney said.
Three occupants of the car were taken to the hospital, police said. The officers were uninjured, though one had his pants catch on fire.
"We are extremely proud of the actions of these officers. They acted quickly and with determination and ultimately were able to remove the passenger before he sustained further injury," Atlanta police said in a statement. "We are also thankful for the actions of the citizens who stopped and assisted immediately after the accident."
ABC News' Steve Osunsami, Jason Volack and Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
