By Police1 Staff
MONTEREY, Calif. — A dramatic rescue by a California Highway Patrol officer was caught on video.
Monterey Herald reported Officer Kaleo Clissold was behind a vehicle on the highway when the car burst into flames.
Clissold was captured on camera pulling screaming children from the smoke-filled sedan by the newspaper’s photographer, Vern Fisher, who happened to be trailing both vehicles.
“I was behind the CHP when all of a sudden I just saw an explosion of smoke and flames,” Fisher told the publication. “The lights (on the patrol car) went on and the car pulled onto the exit but didn’t immediately stop.”
The car was dropping flaming, smoking pieces of the vehicle as it continued down the road. The driver eventually pulled into a parking lot.
“We heard a thump and I looked back and saw flames,” Jenny Torre, a passenger in the car, told the news site.
Torre had tried to open the backdoor but it wasn’t budging. Clissold arrived, told her to step back while he took over and pried open doors to remove the passengers to safety.
Torre’s mother was driving along with a 2-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl.
CHP Captain Bill Perlstein was proud of Clissold’s actions, he told the news site.
“What stands out is how the kids could have suffered a potentially deadly situation,” Perlstein told the Monterey Herald. “I am so proud of the officer… It makes me feel glad.”
The family rescued by the officer was also grateful he was in the right place at the right time.
“He is an angel. I just want to say thank you,” Torre said. “It’s just a miracle, I know that. The fact he was right behind them was an act of God.”
All occupants of the vehicle were treated for smoke inhalation as a precaution, but were released and recovering at home.