He was on his way to his job cleaning nightclubs. She was headed home from her overnight shift as a Brookhaven police officer. Both made a split-second decision to save a stranger’s life.
Shortly before 6 a.m. Thursday morning, a car ignited on the Downtown Connector, just south of University Avenue. Hector Cisneros saw the flames and asked his mother, Lorena, to stop the car the two were in. But he didn’t bother to wait for the car to stop before he jumped out and ran toward the flames. Cisneros, 21, knew someone was inside the car.
After her 12-hour shift, Officer Lois Strong was ready to get to her East Point home when she also saw the car on fire. She stopped her patrol car, got out and ran to help. Together, Strong and Cisneros pulled the driver out of the car and away to safety.
The two heroes had acted fast, without even a minute to spare. Twenty seconds later, the car was fully engulfed in flames, and Strong heard two explosions. Strong and Cisneros had acted fast when a stranger needed it most. Somehow, neither of them was injured.
Strong’s dashcam caught some of the rescue, and later Thursday, Brookhaven police were able to put together a timeline of what happened.
“There’s no doubt in our minds, looking back on it, that they saved that lady’s life, getting her out of that car,” Major Brandon Gurley said.
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