Bodycam video shows police rescuing two unconscious teenagers from burning car
Officers Reid and Schlei will be nominated for medals for their acts of bravery
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Your support makes all the difference.Two police officers have been tipped for bravery medals after they rescued a pair of teenagers from a blazing car, a video shows.
Officers Nicholas Schlei and Nicholas Reid sprang into action when they came across a white Pontiac Grand Am on its roof after it hit an electricity pole and flipped over in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The pair made a split-second decision to pull the two 16-year-old youths from the mangled wreckage after seeing flames leap out of the vehicle’s engine.
"The flames, by the time I got out there, were too big for a fire extinguisher," officer Reid told a news conference, local newspaper the Journal Sentinel reported.
"We knew that we had to get those kids out."
Their bodycam footage shows the pair rush to the car, with smoke billowing out of its engine, to pull one of the teenagers free.
The video shows the officers drag the youth from the wreckage before one radios into their base for support, saying: “We got one black male, unconscious, approximately 13 years old.”
A bystander is then heard shouting: “There’s somebody else in there, there’s somebody else in there.”
One of the officers is heard shouting at the onlookers, fearing they are getting too close to the smouldering car. “Back up, car’s on fire,” he said. “Back up.”
The officers are then seen freeing the second youth and dragging him to safety.
"I knew the car had the potential to become engulfed but at the time that's not what we were thinking," officer Schlei told the news conference.
"It feels like a lot longer when you're doing it though."
Another teenager had freed himself from the wreckage through a window he had kicked out. All three were treated in hospital.
"To help save someone, there's no better feeling," Mr Reid said.
"I think that officers just like us, and at every Milwaukee police district station, even across the country, they would do the same thing," he said.
"Because that's why we joined and that's why we're cops."
Officers Reid and Schlei will be nominated for a Merit Award from the Milwaukee Police Department.
The driver of the burning car is expected to be charged for failing to brake at a stop sign and reckless driving, police said.
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