A dramatic video shows a 36-year-old man from Toronto being pulled from the burning wreckage of his car by five men, who bravely fought to free him.
The man experienced a medical episode, according to the Ontario Provincial Police, which appeared to cause his car to crash. Global News reported that the driver experienced a seizure.
The footage, shared by the OPP’s Highway Safety Division, shows the car beginning to burn with the driver still trapped inside it. A group of five men can be seen trying to break into the vehicle using hammers.
—OPP Highway Safety Division (@OPP_HSD) July 7, 2022
The video then cuts to a shot of the car engulfed in flames.
One of the rescuers, Charles Salameh, told Global News that he was driving by the scene with his wife when he saw a car driving erratically.
“It hit the wall hard enough that the car just immediately jack-knifed, went straight right across all three lanes of highway,” he said.
“It wasn’t as panicky until you saw the flames, and it became panicky not only your safety, but you knew now your time was running out,” Salameh told the outlet.
“All the grass on the passenger side was all on fire, and the entire underbelly of the car was on fire. At that moment, I sort of got a little bit of a panic that you know, holy crap, this car is potentially going to explode.”
He said they continued trying to break into the car, eventually carrying the driver out to safety.
“Literally eight, nine seconds later, it was fully engulfed, and tires were exploding,” he said.
Local Fire Captain Chris Ogg said it was a “tremendous act of heroism” unlike anything he had seen in his 28 years as a firefighter.
