Officer Rescues Firefighter's Daughter From Burning Car

A woman trapped inside a burning car on an interstate in west Phoenix was pulled to safety by an officer who happened to be driving by and busted through her window. The rescue early Saturday morning unfolded as Officer Dakota Berry returned to his duties in nearby Goodyear after booking a suspect at a county jail, the AP reports. When he spotted the two-vehicle crash on Interstate 10, Berry could hear honking from the car that was in flames and realized someone was inside. He rushed to his patrol SUV to get a glass-breaking tool, ran back across the interstate to the woman's car, and used the tool to knock several holes in the driver's side window. Her feet then popped out.

"Get out, get out, get out," Berry said. The woman, whose hair was on fire, can be heard crying. The officer grabbed her legs and pulled her through the broken window. She was brought in critical condition to a burn center and is expected to survive. Berry, who tried putting out the fire with his hands and finally stopped it with an extinguisher, suffered a hand injury during the rescue and was also hospitalized. After the woman was pulled from the burning car, Berry put out flares on the interstate to make sure there weren't other collisions. The woman is the daughter of a Goodyear firefighter. "As ironic as that is, I would have done the same thing for anyone else, any community member," Berry told reporters.

"Just doing my job," he said, per the Arizona Republic. "I have no doubt that any other officers, within this community and this department, would've done the same thing." In a statement shared by authorities, the victim's father, fire Capt. Simeon Cheatham, said, "I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming love, support, and prayers for my daughter Asharie as she begins the long journey of recovery following a tragic accident that left her with serious burns." (More rescue stories.)