- Police officer Edwardo Hernandez saved a man from a burning Tesla in North Texas on July 19
- Minutes after Hernandez pulled the driver out of the car it was engulfed in flames
- Witness Jersey Goldman reported the fiery accident to the Colony Police Department and said if authorities hadn’t arrived when they did, the outcome would have been “insanely different.”
A Colony, Texas, police officer is being praised as a hero for saving a man from a burning car on Friday, July 19, according to new video footage and a press release from The Colony Police Department.
An unnamed man was rescued from his burning Tesla around 1:23 a.m. in the 5700 block of South Colony Boulevard at Highway 121. Officers received a call from witness Jersey Goldman, who told NBC 5 he saw “a vehicle dropped in between the concrete barriers on each side.”
“I immediately call 911. And as I’m on the phone with the Colony Police Department, a flame sparks under the front side of the vehicle,” Goldman told the outlet.
The authorities then headed to the overpass, where they saw the electric vehicle pinned between the overpass’ two dividing barriers.
The Colony Police Department/Facebook
Officer Edwardo Hernandez and first responders used their extinguishers to try to rid the flames, but the discovered the car wouldn’t stop burning, Hernandez told NBC 5. “I can see the car’s starting to fire up so I grab my fire extinguisher.”
“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 told WFAA.
The officer, who has been with TCPD for 19 months, said he made “the decision that, at this point, this car’s on fire.” He chose to “go back there” and “try to get this driver out.”
“In my mind, I’m just thinking to myself, I’m not going to let this guy die on me,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez’s body camera footage shows him pulling the man out of the vehicle. In the clip, Hernandez ran toward the burning vehicle with a Halligan tool — which is similar to a heavy pickaxe. He hit the window three times until it smashed, then cut the airbag. Next, he pulled out the driver, who told the officer that he was “okay.”
“And at that point, I’m like, ‘Hey, come on, you got to get out, your car’s on fire,’ ” Hernandez told NBC 5. “He starts to put his hands out the window. I grab onto him, and I start to guide him out of the vehicle.”
Once the man was safely out, officers moved him away from the fiery crash. Minutes later, the car was engulfed in flames.
The driver was transported to a local hospital with injuries, but he was later alert and recovering. A different officer at the scene was taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and is expected to fully recover. Other officers were evaluated by paramedics at the site and deemed okay to report back for duty.
The Colony Police Department/Facebook
Goldman explained that without the help of the officers, “particularly Officer Hernandez,” the outcome could have been “insanely different.”
Hernandez told WFAA that he believes if the officers arrived “a little bit later, or had that person not been there to report the crash, it would have probably been a different outcome.”
His training and religious faith guided him through the emergency response, he told NBC 5. “Through that, I was able to help this person, save his life and be able to see another day,” Hernandez said. “So for me, that makes me feel that I’ve made a difference, definitely in someone’s life.”
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The Colony Police Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information on Wednesday.
