If not for the actions of a quick-thinking Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, Rachel Burleson knows she might have burned to death.
An off-duty officer pulled her from the passenger side of an Isuzu Trooper, as flames rolled over the engine. Within a minute or so of the rescue, the sport utility vehicle was engulfed in flames.
Burleson, 22, recalled little about the Burke County wreck on Interstate 40 that preceded the fire. She also doesn't have a clear picture of the May 7 rescue.
"We were just about to hit a black Jeep Cherokee," recalled Burleson. "The next thing I remember was seeing Mr. Fischbach's eyes. I thought he was God or something."
Officer Steve Fischbach, on the force about a year, was traveling west on I-40 when he witnessed the beginning of the chain-reaction wreck in his rearview mirror. A black Jeep flipped at least three times and landed upright about 75 yards behind him. Three other vehicles were involved in the 1:40 p.m. wreck, according to the N.C. Highway Patrol.
Fischbach, 22, pulled his Toyota Corolla off to the left shoulder of the highway, got out and sprinted toward the wreck. He was expecting fatalities, he said. Fischbach checked the Jeep; no one was seriously hurt. He checked a white Ford pickup; the two occupants appeared fine. Then he reached the Isuzu. Its hood had been peeled back and the engine compartment was on fire.
Kelly Benfield stumbled from the vehicle and told Fischbach that his girlfriend couldn't get out. Burleson remembered the officer's eyes; he remembered hers.
"Her eyes were huge and blank," Fischbach said. "She looked completely unresponsive. I figured she was in shock."
The officer, who had been on his way to see his younger brother's last high school baseball game in Asheville, pulled on the passenger's side door handle. It wouldn't open. He reached through the open window, unlocked the door and gave it three good pulls, he said. The flames were rising.
"I knew an explosion could happen at any time," he said.
Benfield, 22, was frantically yanking on the seat belt. Fischbach pressed the release button, freeing her. He reached across her body -- she was still unresponsive -- and put his arms under her armpits.
"I could feel the heat on the back of my head," Fischbach recalled.
Benfield and the officer dragged Burleson away from the vehicle, as onlookers watched. The vehicle went up in flames.
Burleson thinks of the rescue every day, she says. She hugs her 2-year-old son a little closer. She loves her mother a little harder.
Six people were injured in the wreck. Burleson, who lives near Morganton, suffered a broken left collarbone and bruised ribs.
"It could have been a whole lot worse," she said. "It's a scary thing to think about. I could be dead."
Fischbach continued his trip after the wreck. He made it to the game about an hour late. His supervisors are already planning to nominate him for department awards. Fischbach says that 1,500 officers on the force would have reacted the same way he did.
He also noted that dozens of officers -- there have been about 70 -- in the department have been called to active military duty in recent years.
"I was just a police officer in the right place at the right time when I was needed," he said. "Officers risk their lives every day. You could call any of us a hero."
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police AwardsCharlotte-Mecklenburg police award the Medal of Valor to officers who display gallantry and bravery in the performance of their duties. The actions are carried out with a clear risk of death or serious injury. These are the 2004 winners:
Officer Fred Brammer Jr., for risking his life on May 8, 2003, to keep a mentally disturbed woman from harming herself or her parents. The woman, armed with two knives, charged Brammer, but police said he was able to protect the parents.
Officer Trevor Bourque, for pursuing Stacey Lee Thomas, an armed robbery suspect, on West Woodlawn Road on Feb. 6. Police said Bourque positioned his patrol car to block the suspect's escape. The man fired at Bourque as he got out of the squad car. Bourque fired back, fatally wounding Thomas in the parking lot of a southwest Charlotte strip mall. Bourque wasn't hurt.
Officers Zerubabel Chickoree, Christopher Kimbell and Timothy Parker for their roles in the arrest of Maurice Stroud, charged with murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend Nov. 6. Police say the officers risked their lives to apprehend Stroud at Sam's Mart in the university area. A man was carrying a 2-year-old inside the store after leading police on a 40-minute pursuit. The officers evacuated the store, isolated the suspect and rescued the child unharmed.
Sgt. Bob Cooke, Officer Curt Gormican and Officer Cathleen Leonard for putting themselves in harm's way on Sept. 8. Police say a gunman ignored repeated police commands to drop his weapon in a cul-de-sac on Woodside Road in east Charlotte. Cooke and Gormican fired their weapons, police say, to protect residents at the scene. Kevin Douglas Smith was killed.
