Des Moines, IA - An Iowa State trooper helped rescue a woman from her burning car on Interstate 235 on Wednesday morning.
Trooper Marc Griggs said he heard about the crash on I-235 and rushed to the scene and had to make a quick decision once he arrived.
Two women rushed up to meet him, saying that a car was on fire and a woman was trapped inside. He grabbed a fire extinguisher from the trunk of his car and ran toward the wreckage.
"As I run up, I get the fire extinguisher ready to go," said Griggs. "(I) run up and can see the flames coming up the driver's and passenger's sides and it's in the engine compartment."
He said before he tried to pull out the driver, he tried to put out the fire.
"I started my fire extinguisher and got the flames knocked down as best I could," he said. "Once my fire extinguisher was emptied, I ran over to the driver's door and the female driver that was inside was unconscious."
He said troopers are trained not to move victims who may have suffered traumatic injuries, but in this case, he felt he had no choice.
"The first thing that comes to my mind was that we can't let this lady burn to death in this car," he said. "I hopped inside and look at the female and she's unconscious. There's lots of blood coming from her mouth area and nose area. (I) made the decision to cut the seat belt and pull her out."
He said two bystanders helped him pull the woman from the car and take her to another vehicle to stay warm until an ambulance arrived.
"It's the way we want to see things end," he said.
Troopers identified the woman as Yao Chang, 25, of Ames. She was in critical condition upon arrival at Mercy Medical Center but had been upgraded to fair condition on Thursday night. |
