Watch the report HERE\u203a\u203a<\/a>
\nPALMDALE, Calif. (KABC<\/a>) \u2014\u00a0Sheriff\u2019s deputies and a good Samaritan rescued a 28-year-old man from a burning car after it crashed into a cinder block wall outside a Palmdale home early Thursday, authorities said.\n

The crash occurred near 20th Street East and East Avenue R-8 at 1:15 a.m.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt got really bad really fast, the smell of that burning wire and oil,\u201d David Perez said.<\/p>\n

He arrived first and helped pull the passenger out of the burning vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the engine compartment starting to flare up, and that\u2019s when I said I got to pull him out or else he\u2019ll burn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Perez says the man\u2019s legs were wedged under the dashboard of the front passenger side and with flames building, he knew he would have had to risk his own life to save the man.<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggled because he was heavy and he was caught, but I just pulled him really hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After freeing the man mere seconds before flames totally engulfed the passenger side of the vehicle, Perez says he joined at least three sheriff\u2019s deputies who had just arrived and helped pull the unconscious driver out of the Mercedes CLK 500 before it was too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, two of the deputies began pulling the driver out through the broken driver-side window, while the third deputy got into the car to free the man\u2019s legs. And they did all this while the car was burning,\u201d Lt. Brian Dunn said.<\/p>\n

The driver was transported to a hospital unconscious and in serious but stable condition. His passenger suffered minor injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have to wear a uniform to risk my life. I\u2019ve been a security officer, I\u2019ve done all that stuff. I don\u2019t consider myself a hero. I just consider myself a good person that would do that for anybody,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

He says he has to credit his mom for teaching him to help others.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom taught me always to be kind to everybody, to help,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if alcohol may have played a role in the incident. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watch the report HERE\u203a\u203a PALMDALE, Calif. (KABC) \u2014\u00a0Sheriff\u2019s deputies and a good Samaritan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14003,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14001\/revisions\/14003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}