Camera captures fiery rescue

KHQ – (KHQ) A Spokane, Washington woman is counting her blessings after a terrifying car fire.

Kimberly Novak was on her way back home from a quick trip to the store to get ice cream when she drove over an icy patch that had refrozen. All of a sudden, her car shut off and nothing worked anymore. Smoke started to rise from the hood of the car, and then flames. Novak tried to get out of the car, but the locks wouldn't even work manually.

"I've never been so terrified in my life," she says. "Between that and the smoke I didn't know what was going to get me first."

But then, Officer Tim Schwering with the Spokane Police Department came to her rescue. He would not give up, using his baton to break the window. He and a neighbor helped pull Novak out of her car to safety.