Off-Duty Louisiana Firefighter Saves Woman From Fiery Crash on I-10

CHALMETTE, LA (KPEL) —An off-duty Louisiana firefighter saved a woman's life after pulling her from a burning vehicle on I-10 late Saturday.

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Fiery Crash on I-10

The St. Tammany Fire Protection District 1 shared a video and provided details about the fiery crash that happened Saturday night on I-10 westbound between the Mississippi state line and a rest stop nearby.

Authorities confirmed that the woman's vehicle struck the back of an 18-wheeler and caught fire.

By the time first responders arrived on scene and began fighting the fire, the driver was already safe. St. Bernard Parish firefighter Andrew Nixon was driving home from a wedding with his fiancée when they came across the vehicle fire.

A Daring Rescue

Nixon told WVUE that the vehicle's tires catching fire caught his eye, and he knew something was wrong immediately. He pulled over and noticed the driver was unresponsive, and began smashing the windshield with his bare hands.

Nixon pulled the woman out just before the flames engulfed the entire car. “I knew I had to get her out right then and there,” Nixon recalled.

She literally had seconds before that car was fully engulfed.

Nixon's hands were cut up from breaking through the glass, but the driver was safely airlifted to a New Orleans hospital to receive treatment.

Saving the Driver Healed Him

Nixon says that the moment reminded him of his late niece, who tragically drowned in April. “I remember every day saying I wish I could just grab her and pick her up,” Nixon told WVUE.

In that moment, I feel like God and Everleigh were with me and helped me lift the driver out.

Even Chris Kaufmann, chief of St. Tammany Fire Protection District No. 1, said that the woman would not have survived without Nixon's quick thinking, "His instincts and training took over,” Kaufmann said.

“He was her last chance.” Now the woman is recovering, and Nixon feels as if a part of him was healed from his own family's loss, "It just felt good actually to save somebody."

Read the full interview here and watch the video below.