SPOKANE – Calling his actions “heroic”, Spokane Police credit a man with saving an intoxicated driver from a burning vehicle.

Tuesday night at 11:32, police and fire personnel responded to a report of a vehicle stuck in a snow berm on the 5800-block of North Belt. The callers reported that the vehicle was on fire and that it was also occupied. 

Othello Richards/KREM 2

Upon arrival, emergency personnel discovered that Joshua Myers had already rescued the occupant of the burning vehicle.

Myers, who lives a short distance away, had heard the vehicle slam into the snow bank. When he looked outside, he saw smoke pouring out from under the hood of the van.

Myers went outside to assist the driver, but found him slumped over the wheel unresponsive. With the vehicle now in flames, Myers used a shovel to break out a window to pull the driver, and only occupant, out of the vehicle to safety.

Two nearby Spokane City snowplow drivers blocked traffic on Belt until Police and Fire could respond.

The driver of the vehicle, Edo A. Pierre, 52, of Spokane, suffered only minor injuries. Pierre was arrested for DUI and booked into the Spokane County Jail. Myers was treated and released at the scene for a minor cut to his hand and for smoke inhalation.

“Without Mr. Myers heroic actions, Mr. Pierre would have certainly suffered serious injuries or would have died,”  said Officer Michelle Madsen, the first officer on the scene.

“The Spokane Police Department thanks Mr. Myers for going above and beyond to make Spokane a safer place to live,” she said.