EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE AWARD
Elizabeth Granados, Cameron Price and Wendy Beatley
Officers, Santa Ana Police Department
On November 20, 2010, at approximately 1942 hours, Officer Granados was in her police vehicle when she saw a damaged Chevrolet Impala in the center median of Fairview Street. Following a single-car collision, it collided head on with a large pine tree in the median. A water pipe was also damaged during the collision and was spraying water from the median. The force of the collision crushed the engine compartment of the Impala, and the tree had been driven into the engine firewall, causing severe damage to the passenger compartment. An engine fire was expanding and smoke was billowing from the vehicle. Several bystanders approached the vehicle and were attempting to remove its trapped occupants. One bystander tried unsuccessfully to shatter a rear window with a fire extinguisher.
As Officer Granados approached the scene, she saw Francisco Roman, a passenger from the Impala, standing near the median. He had freed himself and was now standing in the No. 1 lane of northbound Fairview Street. Roman advised her that there were others in the vehicle. The Impala’s doors were closed, with the windows up and the doors either locked or rendered inoperable by the collision. Officer Granados could not see inside the vehicle due to heavy smoke. Officer Granados alerted Communications of the collision as Officers Beatley and Price arrived on scene seconds after Officer Granados. Officer Granados retrieved the LifeHammer device from her vehicle to break the car’s windows. Officer Price retrieved a fire extinguisher and began applying it to the engine fire’s origin near the driver’s seat, placing himself next to the burning vehicle amid heavy smoke and flames, as well as a deluge of water spraying from the broken pipe which interfered with the lifesaving efforts.
Officer Granados returned with the LifeHammer and shattered the rear passenger window. Inside, rear passenger Elvira Orejel’s leg was pinned behind the front seat and she was unable to pull herself free from the burning vehicle. While Orejel was screaming for help, Officer Beatley entered the vehicle and pulled her left leg free. Unable to walk because of her injuries, she was pulled from the vehicle and dragged to a position of safety by Officer Beatley.
Officer Granados then shattered the front passenger window and realized the front passenger was unresponsive and deceased due to his severe injuries. The same passenger was also pinned and unable to be extracted. At the same time, passenger Roman had now collapsed in the traffic lanes of northbound Fairview Street, which had not yet been closed down and still had free-flowing traffic. Officer Granados dragged him to the same position of safety as Orejel. Officer Price exhausted the fire extinguisher’s supply of CO2 and Officer Beatley obtained a second extinguisher from her vehicle. By this time, the fire had entered the passenger compartment and was burning the driver’s seat floorboard area. The driver, Jose Nava, was trapped in the vehicle and unable to be removed by hand. The fire burned Nava’s lower body while Officer Price and Officer Beatley continued their attempts to extinguish the fire. Although they were unable to do so, Officers Price and Beatley held the flames back long enough for Santa Ana Fire Department personnel to arrive and put them out.
Ultimately, the front passenger was killed in the collision and Nava suffered severe burns and head trauma. Nava and the deceased passenger required the Fire Department’s heavy rescue machinery to be extracted. Both Roman and Orejel suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries.
Officers Granados, Beatley and Price acted with swiftness and determination at the scene of a quickly unfolding fatal traffic collision and fire. The officers rapidly assumed lifesaving roles and utilized the tools given them to render aid to the vehicle’s occupants. Despite the challenging nature of the situation, specifically the trapped and disabled occupants as well as the spreading fire, all three of the officers were undeterred in their rescue efforts. Were it not for those officers’ rapid and concerted efforts, all three of the other persons involved in the collision might have suffered fatal injuries.
