Off-duty officer rescues woman from burning car in San Antonio’s Northwest Side

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – A woman is lucky to be alive after being rescued from her burning car by an off-duty police officer in the city’s Northwest Side.

St. Mary’s University Police Sgt. Ken Hamilton says he was on his way home when he saw the overturned vehicle on Bandera Road near Evers Road around 3 this morning. Two young men were trying to get the woman out of the car.

Hamilton says he tried to break the windshield with his baton.

“That wasn’t working great and then one of the young men asked if I wanted a rock. He brings back a piece of concrete and threw it at the windshield several times,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton then kicked in the windshield.

“Flames were coming in over her leg and I reached up to the driver’s seat window and cut her seatbelt. She dropped down to the ground and that’s when I grabbed her,” said Hamilton.

He pulled her out of the vehicle just before it exploded.

“I was waiting for it,” Hamilton told KTSA News. “I mean it sounds silly to say, but I just kept waiting for the explosion. Until I felt the explosion, I wasn’t going to give up,” he said.

The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries.