Two local police officers received the state’s highest honor for
the bravery they showed when pulling an unconscious man from a
burning car.
Two local police officers received the state’s highest honor for the bravery they showed when pulling an unconscious man from a burning car.
On July 1, 2007, California Highway Patrol Officers Adam Yates and Scott Woodring got a call reporting an injury accident and car fire on U.S. 101 near Sixth Street and raced to the scene. There, they found the driver, Jose Luis Cruz Guevara, unconscious and pinned in his car, the driver’s-side door jammed shut.
Fighting to contain the fire and extricate Guevara at the same time, they managed to cut his seat belt and haul him through the driver’s side window with the help of the witness, Louis Paul Soberanis of Camarillo, who made the call to police.
“The victim survived this incident solely due to the efforts of Officers Yates and Woodring and Mr. Soberanis,” according to a press release issued by the CHP.
Guevara suffered fractures to his legs, back and jaw and a laceration to his head. Both officers suffered from smoke inhalation but recovered and returned to full duty.
The Hollister-Gilroy area CHP nominated both officers for the Medal of Valor, “for efforts in which they performed an extraordinary act of heroism far above and beyond the normal call of duty, at great risk to their own personal safety, in an effort to rescue a victim from a burning vehicle.”
Soberanis was also nominated for a certificate of community service.
Both officers received their medals at the state capitol Wednesday. Over 400 medals have been awarded to state employees since the program began in 1959, police said.
