Pōkeno car fire: Strangers come together to pull man from burning car

The rescuers pulled the driver from the wreckage with moments to spare.

Leaning into the crumpled wreckage of the car, as the smoke curling around them turned from grey to black, Katrina Thomson knew that their time was almost up.

Working together with a group of strangers who all stopped to help, they battled desperately to free the critically injured driver and made it - with just seconds to spare.

The dramatic scene played out on Helenslee Rd in Pōkeno, south of Auckland, on Saturday afternoon as members of the public rushed to help the driver who had crashed into a power pole and become trapped inside his badly damaged car.

Parmeet Singh Toor saw the driver before the crash.

Returning home from his shift at Mobil petrol station in Pukekohe, Singh Toor told the Herald that the car passed him just after he exited the Southern Motorway at the Razorback Road exit.

Parmeet Singh Toor stopped to help after witnessing a serious crash in Pokeno.

He said it was travelling “very fast” and he then heard a crash, looking in the rearview mirror to see the car had smashed into a power pole beside the road.

He immediately stopped and ran to help, wrestling to gain access to the driver.

Katrina Thomson, who was travelling behind Singh Toor, also stopped to join the rescue.

With the driver’s door stuck, she tried to go in through the passenger door, noticing how the smoke in the car was changing from grey to black and remembering from a recent first aid course that this was a sign that fire was coming.

Then Singh Toor managed to get the door open.

“I don’t know how I opened that door,” he said.

Singh Toor unlocked the driver’s seat belt but soon realised that he was badly stuck and was not able to free the much larger man.

Others had also stopped to help in what Thomson described as a “team effort” but the driver remained trapped.

Singh Toor told the Herald that he watched the colour drain from the driver’s face as the fire began to start and he pleaded “please let me out”.

Rescuers battled to save the driver. Photo / @Jaatni1985

Enter Michael Inamata (seen above in the pink shirt).

Inamata leapt into action, working to pull the man out of the car as Singh Toor noticed that there was also a child’s car seat in the back of the vehicle.

He frantically looked to see if there was anyone else in the car before determining that the driver was the sole occupant - and the rescuers’ sole focus.

Singh Toor told the Herald he made a promise to himself. He wasn’t leaving without the driver.

“I will be available for every needy person until my last breath,” he said, telling the Herald he was driven by his Sikh faith to “help everyone without any greed”.

Inamata’s strength came to the fore, pulling the stricken man from the wreckage as Katrina Thomson grabbed a mat from the back of the car to use as a makeshift stretcher.

Fire quickly overtook the car after the driver was rescued.

The strangers carried the driver to the grass verge on the opposite side of the road when the car exploded, showering them in tiny fragments as they rushed to carry him further to safety.

Thomson spoke to him as others called emergency services for help.

Hato Hone St John said their crew assessed one patient at the scene and transported him to hospital in a critical condition.

Police today confirmed that he remained in hospital in a critical, but stable condition and said there have been no arrests and there are no charges pending.

Reflecting on the incident, Thomson told the Herald that she had been thinking about the driver.

“Funny how the universe works and me, Michael and Parmeet coming together,” she said.

“We all hope he is going to recover, he has been on our minds and our whānau’s minds that he is going to be OK. You also hope that others would do the same for you in a similar situation.”