Bodycam Video Shows Police Officer Rescuing Passenger From Fiery Wreck
The man was removed from the SUV minutes before an explosion.
— -- A Georgia police officer's bodycam video has captured his dramatic rescue of a passenger caught in an early-morning fiery SUV wreck.
Senior police officer Dan Whitney was responding to a 3 a.m. highway accident when the rescue occurred, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department said in an Aug. 18 YouTube video post.
In the video, a 911 caller tells a dispatcher, "We got a bad wreck out here in front of my house ... This car gonna blow up, I believe ... Hurry, man, or this car gonna blow up!"
The caller says someone is likely still in the vehicle but he's afraid of getting too close to check.
"I ain't going to it," the caller says. "It's going to blow up. God! Somebody in it ... Come on!"
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Whitney found the SUV "engulfed in flames" against a tree, police said. In the bodycam video, Whitney can be seen grabbing a fire extinguisher from his car and rushing over to the fiery scene. There, he finds the SUV ablaze and a man sticking out of a side window.
Though Whitney tries to put the fire out with the extinguisher, the blaze is overwhelming, and he calls for help.
"I need a fire extinguisher or a garden hose. Get a garden hose!" he can be heard screaming on the video.
Whitney was able to bend the door frame and pull the man, a passenger, out of the car, police said. The video shows the man lying on the grass, and then the video ends. Police said a blast under the hood knocked off Whitney's body cam and his hat. Police said the driver of the car was killed in the wreck.
"Without Whitney's rescue, the passenger likely would have suffered the same tragic death as the driver, as the backseat was completely melted and gutted within minutes," police said.
