He said it was just a case of being in the right place at the right time. One off duty firefighter saved a woman's life by going into her burning car.
Capt. Pete Longdon of the Albuquerque Fire Deptartment said, "You like to think that anybody would have done it."
He is a humble veteran firefighter who has been with the department for 15 years and now teaches EMS training at the fire academy.
Driving home from work Thursday night along Interstate 40, he saw a car spin out of control and slam into a wall.
Longdon said, "I got there pretty much as it was happening and from the rear windshield back, the trunk area was all on fire. Six or eight-foot flames. Underneath the car was on fire and gasoline had been dribbling down the road and that was on fire."
He saw a young woman come out from the passenger side, but he knew the driver was still inside.
"I opened that door again and a big puff of black smoke, the inside was pure black," he said. "As that smoke cleared, I saw a head, slide and just drop in front of me from the driver's seat to the passenger seat, she slumped over and she was out, a couple more breaths of that smoke and she would have been dead."
Even off-duty, Longdon was ready to save lives.
"It's kind of one of those things where firemen and police, we're on the street to help with these kinds of situations, and your training and your education, especially for me, I teach it, it just kind of kicks in and that's just kind of what we do," he said.
Even recognizing the importance of what he did, Longdon stays humble.
"It was a good thing for her I was there, or somebody was there, not necessarily me, but anybody was there," he said.
Longdon said the passenger broke her leg but both women were doing well when they left for the hospital.
He hasn't been able to check on them because he never even got their names.
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