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Two Prince George's County residents are being hailed as good Samaritans after pulling a woman from a burning car Thursday after a two-vehicle crash along Indian Head Highway in Oxon Hill, according to county fire officials.
The crash occurred shortly after 7 p.m. near the intersection of the highway and Woodrow Wilson Drive. According to fire officials, a woman was driving southbound and stopped at a traffic light when she was struck from behind by another vehicle. The woman's vehicle was knocked into the intersection, where it caught fire after the gas tank ruptured, said Mark Brady, a spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department.
"The whole time witnesses said they could see flames shooting out of the vehicle," he said.
Two of the witnesses rushed from their vehicles to help the woman, who was not responding to the shouts of bystanders and appeared to be dazed from the collision, Brady said.
One of the men, David Ramadhani of Bowie, a FedEX driver, retrieved a fire extinguisher from his delivery truck and used it on the driver's door. He then worked with another bystander, Michael Harry of Oxon Hill, to open the door and used a utility knife to cut the woman's seatbelt and pull her from the burning vehicle. The rescue took about two minutes, Brady said.
The woman, whom Brady said is in her 30s, was taken to an area hospital with serious but non-life-threatening burns. The driver of the other vehicle was also taken to an area hospital with minor injuries, he said. Neither of the men sustained injuries, Brady said.
Brady said the cause of the accident has yet to be determined. The Prince George's County Police Department is investigating the crash.
In a statement from the Fire/EMS department, Lt. Dale Giampetroni, the on-scene paramedic supervisor and firefighter/medic, commended the men.
"The immediate removal of the female from the vehicle saved her life," Giampetroni said. "There is no way anyone could have survived the intense fire that firefighters encountered upon their arrival."
The department plans to hold a formal presentation in the near future honoring the men's efforts, Fire Chief Eugene A. Jones said in the statement.
"I am humbled by the brave heroic acts of our citizens that placed themselves in harm's way to rescue the life of a stranger," he said. "These Good Samaritans should be extremely proud of themselves for saving a life."
E-mail Joshua Garner at jgarner@gazette.net.