BEAVERTON, OR — While people were standing by at a Chevron gas station in Beaverton, taking video of a woman trapped inside of her burning car, a 19-year-old came to her rescue.
“I wasn’t really thinking, I just saw her and knew I had to get her out of there before it gets worse,” Phillipe Bittar said to KPTV after saving the woman’s life Saturday.
Bittar was on his way to get some food with his brother when they saw the plume of smoke and fire.
“I wasn’t really thinking, I just saw her and knew I had to get her out of there before it gets worse,” Phillipe Bittar said after saving the woman’s life Saturday. PHOTO: KPTV
But what surprised Bittar wasn’t the flames, it was the crowd of people he said standing around, taking video of what he found to be a woman trapped in her burning car.
“There was like six bystanders just videotaping like oh man she needs to get some help.”
That’s when Bittar took the situation into his own hands. “I told her, hey I’m going to pull you out, get away from the window because I have to break it and she’s like okay,” he described.
“I wasn’t really thinking, I just saw her and knew I had to get her out of there before it gets worse,” Phillipe Bittar said after saving the woman’s life Saturday. PHOTO: KPTV
The woman was taken by medic crews to a nearby hospital.
And now, Bittar is being called a hero.
“I just did what any person’s supposed to do,” he said.
Fire crews later said in a statement that Bittar’s actions were nothing short of “heroic”. They said if he didn’t pull the woman out in time, she probably would not have survived.
Crews also said one of Chevron’s employees turned off the gas pump right away, preventing the fire from spreading.
Right now the cause of the fire is being investigated.
Bittar walked away with cuts from breaking the window while the woman suffered non-life threatening injuries from smoke inhalation.
Continue reading on KPTV.
