STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – Sterling Heights police officers rescued an 80-year-old woman from a burning vehicle following a serious crash at 18 Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue on Monday evening.
Officer John-Mark Branch said a fellow officer, assisted by a relative of the victim who happened to be nearby, pulled the elderly woman from the vehicle as flames began to spread.
Recommended Videos
“These car fires spread rapidly, very quickly; a car could be fully engulfed,” Sterling Heights police Chief Andy Satterfield said.
The rescue was complicated by the airbags being fully deployed, which made it difficult to see inside the vehicle.
“Once we got her away, that was my immediate concern — was there anyone else in the vehicle?” Branch said. “You can’t really see inside the vehicle.”
Branch discovered a significant amount of blood on the driver’s side, indicating severe injuries.
After they moved the victim to safety, he assessed her condition and took immediate action.
“Once we were able to pick her up and carry her over and set her down, I was able to assess her injuries a little bit better,” Branch said. “It was pretty obvious that at least from the knee down, she had some dramatic injuries.”
Officers applied a tourniquet to her right leg as a precautionary measure.
Sterling Heights firefighters arrived shortly after the rescue and took the woman to a hospital, where she remains in stable condition.
Chief Satterfield praised his officers’ response to the emergency situation.
“I was really proud, really impressed with the action, being so calm, resorting to their training, knowing exactly what to do, work as a team,” Satterfield said.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.