THE COLONY, Texas — Officer Edwardo Hernandez has only been with The Colony Police Department for 19 months.
But that’s long enough to know a quiet night on patrol in even a quiet North Texas suburb can change in an instant.
About 1:30 a.m. Friday, a vehicle exiting the Sam Rayburn Tollway hit a barricade, flipped, and was wedged between walls separating northbound and southbound traffic.
Hernandez saw the orange glow as soon as he pulled up, so he grabbed the fire extinguisher from his cruiser and as he was heading for the vehicle, a witness to the crash told him the driver was still inside.
But Hernandez’s fire extinguisher was no match for the flames.
“I noticed it was a Tesla, but I did not take into account right then and there that this was a battery, an electric vehicle,” Hernandez said. “It was just rekindling, starting to flare back up.”
After the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, The Colony Police Department equipped every officer with tools that can breach a door or a window.
Hernandez ran back to his trunk, grabbed what’s known as a Halligan, and did what he had been trained to do.
“Stand back, I’m breaking your window,” Hernandez said to the man trapped inside the burning car.
Then he smashed the window three times until it gave way. His body camera recorded the entire interaction.
“Your car is on fire, get out,” he told the man.
“I’m OK,” the driver responded.
“Get out of the car!” Hernandez repeated.
Then he grabbed the man’s hands, pulled him out, and together they ran to safety.
Seconds later, the man collapsed. He was injured but alive.
However, the fire was only growing.
“Eventually from my understanding the car burned all the way down to its frame,” he said.
Hernandez said training – and maybe a little help from above – kept him calm.
“Honestly, I was telling myself, I’m not going to let this person die on me,” he said.
“I believe had we gotten there a little bit later, or had that person not been there to report the crash, it would have probably been a different outcome.”