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.
“I heard her screaming for help,” Cisneros told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The flames were too heavy on the driver's side, so Cisneros reached for the woman through the passenger side. By then, another person was there to help.
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.
“I wasn’t thinking,” Strong said. “I just knew the car was going to blow up. I knew it would.”
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.
“Are you OK?” Strong said she asked the woman. “Tell me what hurts.”
The woman, whose name was not released, was losing consciousness, and Strong kept talking to her. By now, traffic was jammed in the area, so Strong knew it would be difficult for an ambulance to reach the woman.
After moving her patrol car to shield the woman, Strong began directing traffic away from the burning car. Her supervisor arrived at the scene, along with other Atlanta officers who investigated the crash. Strong later learned the woman’s car was stranded and in the path of a tractor-trailer that was attempting to change lanes. The tractor-trailer had hit the car, causing it to ignite, according to witnesses.
Cisneros and his mother left the area once the woman was safe. And Strong continued home. Her 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.
Strong and Cisneros had acted fast when a stranger needed it most. Somehow, neither of them was injured.
“It was very dangerous for everyone,” Gurley said.
But neither Strong nor Cisneros were thinking about their own safety when they rushed to help. They acted on instinct, each thankful the other was there. And grateful they had gotten the woman out of the burning car.
After getting some rest, Strong returned to work Thursday evening, ready for another 12-hour shift. A Brookhaven officer since July, Strong said a day off wasn’t necessary, even after saving someone’s life.
“You gotta keep going,” she said.
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