Woman reunites with 1st responders who rescued her from burning truck
An Arizona woman reunited with the first responders who rescued her from a burning vehicle Wednesday and said she couldn't be more grateful for their quick actions.
"If it weren't for them, you know, I would probably be dead," Aymee Ruiz said in a reunion held at the Chandler Police Department in Chandler, Arizona.
Ruiz, a mother of three, was traveling along U.S. 60 in Mesa, Arizona, on Tuesday morning when a cement mixer rear-ended the pickup truck she was driving, causing the truck to flip and burst into flames. Ruiz feared she would be burned alive.
"It was completely pitch black in the truck and I felt that my hair singed off, my eyelashes and like, my clothes were starting to get really hot," Ruiz recalled.
Officer Brian Larison of the Chandler Police Department happened to be nearby, on his way to work, when he noticed Ruiz's vehicle engulfed in flames and rushed to respond. Larison's body camera captured the heart-pounding rescue.
"All I could hear was her screaming and yelling for help and [saying] 'Get me out,'" Larison recounted. "I was just thinking, you know, 'I'm not letting her die.'"
Another first responder, Asa Paguia, a firefighter and paramedic with the Peoria Fire Department, also happened to be passing by when he jumped to help.
"I had my gear with me and I don't normally have my gear with me," said Paguia, who was off duty at the time. "[It was] probably the fastest I've ever put it on."
Larison used a baton to smash one of the truck's windows and raced with Paguia to pull Ruiz to safety.
"I truly believe that we were there for a reason," Larison said.
Ruiz was transported to a local hospital afterward, where she was treated for bruising, burns and scrapes from the window glass.
When they met again on Wednesday, Ruiz burst into tears and embraced Larison and Paguia and thanked the two for saving her life, calling them her "angels."
"It's like touching angels. Hugging angels for sure," Ruiz said after they embraced.
"Thank you so much for being there for me and protecting me from that and just rescuing me from such a nightmare that I didn't think I was going to get out of," she added.
Authorities have since opened an investigation into the crash.
