NORTH BETHESDA, Md. — Two local police officers are in the spotlight for all the right reasons.
The Montgomery County officers have been given their department’s highest honor for pulling a man from a burning car on the Capital Beltway.
Newly-released dashcam video from just after midnight on Sept. 1 shows Officer Cody Fields running to the car, which had flames shooting out of the engine compartment.
The vehicle had crashed on the Outer Loop between Georgia Avenue and Connecticut Avenue and was resting near the center Jersey wall.
Fields broke the front, passenger-side window to get in, and with the help of Officer Brian Nesbitt pulled the unconscious 34-year-old driver from the car.
Fields, 24, is a three-year member of the force. Nesbitt is a 12-year veteran. For both, the event is a bit of a blur.
“I really don’t have any idea” how they were able to remove the man from the car, Fields said. “Neither (Nesbitt) nor myself remember actually taking him out his seat belt or cutting it or anything, so just through sheer force alone I think we were able to manhandle him out of his seat belt.”
Fields said they could barely see because of the smoke and flames. “The dashboard was melting, the windshield was melting,” he said. He called it a “figure it out as you go kind of moment.”
“It seems like it’s taking forever to do, and you sit back and you look at it, and it was only 30 seconds,” Nesbitt said.
After pulling the driver to safety, they began to assess the driver’s condition as rescue crews arrived. The man, Rashad Isreal of Rockville, says he regained consciousness in the ambulance and suffered only minor burns and a back injury.
Isreal met the officers before they were honored at the 42nd Annual Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Public Safety Awards Friday. “Four or five seconds longer … I would have been gone,” Isreal said, “and I’m thankful for them.”
According to a news release from Montgomery County Police, rescuers who were at the scene say if not for the officers’ quick actions, Israel would likely have died from the flames or from smoke inhalation.
Fields and Nesbitt were given the police department’s Medal of Valor. They were honored Friday at the 42nd Annual Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Public Safety Awards.