He can’t escape dangers of the job
Brian Post, the police officer featured in Erika Hayasaki’s moving piece on The Atlantic website: Life Of a Police officer: medically and psychologically ruinous,” risked his life again this week in Seattle when he ran towards the inferno set off by a helicopter crash to help a man who had escaped his burning car.
The man, Richard Newman suffered burns on his lower back, arms and torso early Tuesday when the KOMO News helicopter crashed into his car and burst into flames. Newman was somehow able to free himself from the fiery wreckage, but he was severely injured and still on fire.
Read the story and watch the TV news report with an interview with Brian Post.
Brian, who was working as a security guard nearby, ran toward the fire to help Newman.
“I used my hand at first and then his jacket to get the flames out,” he said.
After putting out the fire, Post knelt by Newman’s side and tried to comfort him until paramedics arrived.
“I tried to talk with him but he wasn’t responsive. He was breathing, kind of struggling,” Post said. “It was pretty intense.”
Newman spent an agonizing 90 seconds trapped inside his burning car before he was able to get out, and Post admits he didn’t think the man would survive. While many would say Post is a hero, he said Newman saved himself.
“It was just a will to survive, to get out of the car and get away from the flames – that was it,” he said.
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