Dashboard video shows cops pulling man from burning car
Rashad Isreal, center, speaks on March 11 with two cops who pulled him from his burning car: Cody Fields, left, and Brian Nesbitt.
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Early on the morning of Sept. 1, driving alone on the Capital Beltway just north of Washington, Isreal fell asleep. His Toyota Camry drifted left, struck a concrete barrier and caught on fire.
A passerby called 911.
Officer Cody Fields, 24, pulled up three minutes later. He got out and — as captured on his dashboard video recorder — ran to the burning car, saw an unconscious man inside and used his baton to smash a passenger-side window.
Less than 30 seconds later, Officer Brian Nesbitt pulled up and ran to the car. As flames spread from the engine and at their feet, the two officers leaned into the car, pulled Isreal out and got him away from the fire before handing him over to medics moments later.
Isreal, 34, was unconscious for much of the rescue, remembering only the ambulance ride to a hospital.
“I’m very thankful to both y’all,” Isreal told the officers Friday as the three met at a Marriott hotel and conference center in North Bethesda, where the officers were cited for their bravery at an annual awards ceremony.
Police officials also reunited the three by bringing Isreal and his fiancee to the luncheon where Isreal for the first time saw the dashboard recording.
“I’m not even moving or nothing,” he said, stunned, while watching it on a phone. “Oh my goodness.”
Rashad Isreal, left, Cody Fields, Brian Nesbitt.
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As Fields, a Manhattan native who has been on the force for three years, pulled up, he saw tall flames in the front of the car and that the driver’s side was lodged against the barrier. He ran toward the passenger door.
As he did, Fields hoped information he’d heard over the radio — that there possibly was a person trapped — was wrong. But it wasn’t.
The car door was locked. The window was up. The smoke and flames were growing.
Fields took out his baton and swung at the window. “I was covering my face and just swinging away,” he said Friday.
He finally broke the glass, reached in, unlocked and opened the door.
At that moment, Nesbitt, 35, ran up from behind.
“There’s somebody in the car!” Fields yelled.
Nesbitt opened a rear door.
The officers had trouble getting the unconscious driver out of his seat belt. They still aren’t sure how they did it, but they think they pulled him out without unbuckling it.
Then, another hurdle: The driver fell head-first to the passenger side, front floorboard, making it even harder to pull him out.
Nesbitt could see parts of the dashboard and areas around the windows starting to melt. He worried the driver might be dead. He realized he and Fields had only a few more seconds before they would have to back away.
“We either do this now or we’re done,” he yelled at Fields.
They dragged the driver out, with one of them stumbling onto the pavement as they pulled him free.
Fields was about to start CPR but Nesbitt felt a pulse and saw the man taking shallow breaths.
Wow, crazy video and @bystander dude running up with his little toy fire extinguishers like he was really gon' do something with the entire front end of that car being engulfed in flames. Mess. Sweet story tho!
This story is so amazing! Especially since the Police get so much bad rap in the USA. 
@bystander dude running up with his little toy fire extinguishers like he was really gon' do something with the entire front end of that car being engulfed in flames. Mess. Sweet story tho!
