LOGAN (WPVI) \u2013A Philadelphia police officer is being credited with saving the life of a man he found unconscious in a burning car in Logan.
\n39th District Police Officer Joel Rice was returning from Northwest Detectives around 12 a.m. Wednesday when he came across a crash scene on Broad Street near Belfield Avenue.
\n\u201cI saw up in the distance what looked like a fireball,\u201d said Rice.<\/div>\n

A mangled Dodge Charger had crashed seconds earlier, first hitting a median then slamming into a parked van, which crashed into the car behind it.<\/p>\n

The Charger then caught fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI noticed flames were starting to accumulate in the engine,\u201d said Rice, \u201c(and) starting to rise up the windshield.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rice also saw the 47-year-old driver inside. He was sprawled across the front seat, unconscious. Rice knew he had to get the driver out.<\/p>\n

Through an open window, he was able to open the door.<\/p>\n

Around that time, a passing private ambulance company stopped.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith their help, I pulled the male out of the front seat of the car as the flames were growing,\u201d Rice said.<\/p>\n

Medics treated the driver then rushed him to Einstein Medical Center with cuts, bruises and a head injury.<\/p>\n

Neighbors had watched in horror as the flames grew. Many had come running upon hearing the impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard a big crash,\u201d said Matthew Newsome. \u201cI came out, and there was a car on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact was very, very intense, because there was no braking,\u201d said Porter Grant.<\/p>\n

Grant\u2019s van, the one struck by the Charger, was totaled. But he says what\u2019s important is that the officer was able to pull the driver out.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than luck,\u201d he told Action News. \u201cIt was a Godsend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday morning, Police Commissioner Richard Ross spoke personally to Rice and praised his quick action.<\/p>\n

\u201cOfficer Rice performed heroically,\u201d said Ross. \u201cCan\u2019t say enough about him. (He) undoubtedly saved that individual\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police were still working to determine what caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle in the first place.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watch the report HERE\u203a\u203a LOGAN (WPVI) \u2013A Philadelphia police officer is being credited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14261","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\/14261","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=14261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14263,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14261\/revisions\/14263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}