SACRAMENTO, California (KOVR) — Two California State Parks officers are being praised for rescuing a woman trapped inside a burning, overturned car along Highway 70 in Butte County.
Officers Ryan Gray and Dylan Ayache were on their way to a training facility in Sacramento on Friday morning when they came across the fiery crash. The woman was still inside the vehicle when the officers rushed to help.
The dramatic rescue was captured on the car’s dashcam.
“She was asking, ‘Please help me, I’m going to die.’ Her screams were hard to describe,” Gray said.
Gray described the scene as dangerous, with smoke and flames pouring from the overturned vehicle and making it difficult to see the woman.
“It was hard to breathe. It was hard to see. And for her, I imagine it was ten-fold. It was much more difficult because she was trapped in all that smoke,” Gray said.
Gray said he began pulling away broken debris from the vehicle to help clear the way to the woman.
“And eventually her and I coordinated to get her into a position where she was able to reach her arm out of the window, and I was able to get her out,” he said.
Looking back on the encounter, Gray said the timing of their arrival may have made all the difference.
“It seemed like divine timing really,” he said.
The driver, a 46-year-old woman from Plumas Lake, was conscious when officers pulled her from the burning vehicle. She was taken to a hospital and released later that same day.
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