Brown County Deputy pulls man from burning car

A Brown County Deputy saved a man from a burning car on Wednesday morning at 1:53 a.m. The driver was dazed and refused to get out of the car.

This was the driver's suspected third OWI offense.

The car fire occurred on Bellevue St. at Manderly Way.

A witness at the scene observed the man attempting to remove the vehicle from the ditch while it was on fire and the man remained in the burning vehicle.

Deputy Zach Roush was the 1st officer on scene and approached the vehicle without hesitation. When he opened the door the subject was sitting motionless inside the vehicle. He attempted to warn the driver and the driver was extremely dazed and would not cooperate with the deputy and refused to exit the vehicle.

Deputy Roush tried to warn the driver but he refused to listen and would not exit the vehicle on his own. Deputy Roush eventually grabbed the man by the belt and pulled the man from the vehicle, saving his life. The fire and smoke was dangerous enough that he almost abandoned his rescue attempt for his own safety.

High winds caused the flames and smoke to move in dangerous and unpredictable ways making the mere approach to the vehicle extremely dangerous. There is no doubt that without Deputy Roush's quick action, this accident would have been a fatality. The rescue was captured on Deputy Roush's dash cam and can be viewed on the Brown County Sheriff's Office Facebook.

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