David Cardenas

David Cardenas rescued a man from burning, Holland, Michigan, June 27, 2025. After the man, 21, suffered a medical emergency, his car left an interstate and crashed head-on into a tree on a grass embankment. As he remained unresponsive and pinned in the driver’s seat by the steering wheel, witnesses observed smoke emanating from the car and then a fire broke out at the front end. Among the bystanders who stopped at the scene was an off-duty state police sergeant, Cardenas, 49, who used a passerby’s fire extinguisher to break open multiple door windows. He cut the shoulder strap of the man’s seat belt, then fully entered the smoke-filled car at the rear, passenger-side door. By then, flames had breached the cabin and were burning the man’s legs. Cardenas reclined the driver’s seat and pulled the man’s arms but had trouble freeing him from the car as Cardenas exited twice for fresh air. Re-entering at the same door, Cardenas again tugged the man’s arms and his upper body reached the doorway. Another man then helped Cardenas drag the man in the grass away from the car. The flames, which swelled and spread to the tree and grass by the car, destroyed the vehicle. Cardenas helped first-responders tend to the man before they took him to a hospital for severe burns to the lower half of his body and a hand. The man was hospitalized for six weeks, followed by two weeks of rehabilitation. Cardenas, who reported a minor burn to his left forearm and multiple cuts on his legs, feet, and hands, declined to go to a hospital for treatment.

2025-0000271-10572