Two police officers in L’Assomption, Que. are being called “heroes” after they pulled a man from his burning car before it went up in flames. While visiting the stretch of Route 341 northeast of Montreal for the first time since the accident, officers Gabriel Daou and Noemie Vézina were a bit lost for words looking at the charred aftermath. The officers found the vehicle while working the night shift Sept. 27. “We saw the car in the ditch, and the fire was already big,” says Vézina, describing the SUV ablaze deep in a roadside ditch with a man inside yelling. “He was coughing and he was saying that he was going to die and that the fire was all over the car,” Daou adds. The officers, both aged 26, were able to break the back window. Daou explained that the man in the car was able to move back to the trunk before losing consciousness. That’s when the officers had to extract him from the burning vehicle. They say the extraction was terrifying. Flames were spreading fast, but they managed to pull the driver out and carry him up a steep embankment to safety. “It was difficult because we were breathing a lot of smoke,” Vézina adds. As soon as they reached the roadside, the whole car went up in flames. Daou says there was no time to panic. “There was not really a lot of place or time for any kind of fear or stress,” he says. The driver was brought to hospital and has since been released. An investigation into what led to the crash is ongoing. Officers Daou and Vézina both have just over two years of experience on the L’Assomption Police Force. “We are not the older ones or the most experienced, but we can do as much as the others. So it’s nice to feel important in our organization,” says Vézina with a smile. However, the two are still processing it all and reliving the traumatic rescue. “To realize what just happened, you realize that things could have went sideways,” Daou admits. But Vézina says there’s a lot of pride, too. “We are really relieved. It was a big, big call for us. It’s the biggest one of my career,” she says. “We don’t feel like heroes because for us, it’s just our work.” And for one driver, it’s a good thing these two were on the job
