Aymee Ruiz, an Arizona resident, recently reunited with the first responders who saved her from a burning vehicle, expressing profound gratitude for their swift actions.
“If it weren’t for them, you know, I would probably be dead,” Ruiz stated at the reunion held at the Chandler Police Department.
The dramatic rescue occurred on February 18th, when Ruiz’s pickup truck was rear-ended by a cement mixer on U.S. 60 in Mesa, Arizona. The impact caused her vehicle to flip and catch fire. Ruiz was terrified as she was trapped inside the vehicle.
“It was completely pitch black in the truck and I felt that my hair singed off, my eyelashes and like, my clothes were starting to get really hot,” she recalled.
Chandler Police Officer Brian Larison, who was on his way to work, witnessed the accident and immediately responded. Larison’s body camera captured the intense moments of the rescue.
“All I could hear was her screaming and yelling for help and [saying] ‘Get me out,'” Larison recounted. “I was just thinking, you know, ‘I’m not letting her die.'”
Firefighter and paramedic Asa Paguia of the Peoria Fire Department, who happened to be passing by, also stopped to assist. “I had my gear with me and I don’t normally have my gear with me,” Paguia said, adding that it was “probably the fastest I’ve ever put it on.”
Larison used a baton to break the truck’s window, and he and Paguia worked together to pull Ruiz to safety. “I truly believe that we were there for a reason,” Larison stated.
After the rescue, Ruiz was taken to a local hospital for treatment of bruising, burns, and scrapes from the shattered glass. During the reunion on Wednesday, Ruiz emotionally embraced Larison and Paguia, expressing her thanks and calling them her “angels.”
“It’s like touching angels. Hugging angels for sure,” Ruiz said. “Thank you so much for being there for me and protecting me from that and just rescuing me from such a nightmare that I didn’t think I was going to get out of.”
Authorities have commenced an investigation into the crash.
