One morning, Officer Brian Larison of the Chandler, Arizona, Police Department headed out to begin his shift as a traffic enforcement officer. That morning, he chose to take a detour rather than his normal route; this small decision ended up placing him in the right place at the right time.

Officer Larison came upon a pickup truck that had just been rear-ended by a cement mixer. The truck was lying at an angle and rapidly becoming engulfed in flames. A woman was trapped inside, and a group of citizens was desperately trying to break the driver’s side window. The officer rushed over on his motorcycle, grabbed his baton, and sprinted to the truck. He struck the window repeatedly, finally shattering it after several attempts. Due to the force of his blows, the vehicle righted itself. This gave Officer Larison a way to access the burning vehicle.

An off-duty firefighter also happened to be on the scene, and he and Officer Larison pulled the woman away from the burning wreckage to safety as the fire spread from the bed to the cab of the truck. Officer Larison kept talking to the rescued woman, reassuring her of her safety, until medical help arrived and transported her to a local hospital.