SAN ANTONIO — A dramatic rescue stopped traffic in the middle of Highway 90 early last Saturday.
Dashcam footage captured a car on fire with a group of Good Samaritans trying to rescue the driver who was trapped inside.
KENS 5 is learning more about what led up to these moments. With minutes to spare, the right person drove by the fiery scene.
It's a story many may consider divine timing.
Chase Morales, a firefighter with Bexar County Emergency Services District 2, is trained to do this type of rescue. In his 10-year career, he's never pulled a person out of a burning car -- until the morning of July 6.
Around 6:30 Saturday morning, Morales was off-duty, on his way to work. As he approached the fiery scene near Callaghan on Highway 90, he saw a group of people struggling to open the car door.
That's when he realized someone was trapped inside.
"I wasn't even supposed to be at work that day. That was overtime," said Morales. "I live in Houston, so I drive three and a half hours to get to work to get to the station. We do two days on and four days off."
Traffic was at a standstill on Highway 90. Morales pulled over and jumped out to help.
"There was a whole bunch of people screaming a lot of things. Everyone's running around trying to get the guy out, plus they're trying not to get burned," said Morales. "I've been to plenty of car fires, so you kind of know how it's gonna act. It's not going to explode like everybody thinks it's gonna do."
He said an ICU nurse was among the group trying to save the driver, who was the only person in the car.
"She said he had rolled his car a couple of times. So his windows were busted out when he came back down to his tires, so [the window] was wide open," he explained.
Morales tried, but he couldn't pull the man out through the window, either. The driver was still wearing his seatbelt.
"He was semi-conscious. He was in and out of it. Once we got to the window, he was kind of moaning and reaching then he would pass back out," said Morales.
Morales cut the seatbelt, then he unlocked the door through the shattered window.
"As soon as I grabbed him on his armpits, there was five more people around me and we just pulled him out," he recalled.
Morales believes if just two more minutes passed, the flames would have reached the driver.
"He probably had an additional two minutes, maybe," he said. "Once we got up to the feeder, [the flames] were already in his driver's seat when we drug him over."
Morales commends the bravery of the initial civilians who selflessly stopped on the highway to save a stranger.
For any non-first responders, Morales says this incident can serve as a learning experience. He said if you're on the scene of a burning car and you stop to help, these first steps can potentially save a life:
- Call 911 first
- Check the car doors. If they're locked, you may need to smash the window
- Check if the seatbelt is still fastened and cut it if you can't unbuckle it
First responders assumed, based on the driver acting a bit combative and going in and out of consciousness, he may have experienced head trauma. Morales said the driver needed blood supply when he got to the hospital.