‘No words to describe’: Woman pulled from fiery crash in Mesa reunites with rescuers

MESA, AZ (AZFamily) — A woman met the two emergency responders who helped rescue her from a burning vehicle after a terrifying crash on a Mesa freeway this week.

Aymee Ruiz was visibly emotional as she embraced Chandler Officer Brian Larison and Peoria firefighter-paramedic Asa Paguia — the two men who pulled her to safety after her truck went up in flames on the US 60 in Mesa.

“We got you,” said Officer Larison as he hugged Ruiz. “I’m glad you’re okay,” added Paguia.

“I can’t thank you guys enough for my life. There’s no words to describe. There’s no word big enough,” Ruiz said. “I thought my life was over; I seriously thought it was. You just think of all the moments that you just had, your happy moments, and you just think it’s all going to be over from there. But you guys pulled through. I’m so happy. I’m so glad.”

FULL REUNION BELOW:

Officer Larison said knowing Ruiz will continue on with her life is his reward.

“Just to see her here, standing here, knowing that she’s got her family and her friends, her mother, her kids, her husband, to move forward to in her future. That’s all the reward I need.”

Both officers were in the right place at the right time on Tuesday morning. As traffic was slowing on the US 60 near Val Vista, Ruiz’s pickup truck was rear-ended by a cement mixer. The collision caused Ruiz’s truck to catch fire as she was trapped inside.

A driver’s dash cam captured the devastating chain-reaction collision. Officer Larison’s helmet camera also showed the moment he and Paguia pulled Ruiz out of her vehicle.

The first responders both shared their stories of what happened this week on Good Morning Arizona.

Ruiz and her husband are thankful she’s alive, and that’s due to the heroic actions of the two first responders. She was rescued just seconds before the truck was fully engulfed in flames.

“When I seen it (the fire) moving closer and closer to the cab as I was trying to open the door and also bang on the window, I was screaming for help, screaming, screaming for help,” she said. “I was so relieved once that window broke, but I knew I had to get out of there quickly because of the oxygen and just everything getting in there, and it just was crazy.”

Ruiz said she has lingering bruises and cuts from the crash and the fire, and she’s still finding new injuries.

“I’m just noticing all these injuries today and just the mental part of it is just only getting worse,” she said.

Ruiz said she remembered seeing the cement truck that hit her in her rearview mirror before the crash, but she was defenseless.

“He was coming so quick, so fast, that that’s when I just closed my eyes and just clenched really hard,” Ruiz said. “It was just way too late.”

Immediately after the crash, while still trapped in the truck, Ruiz called her husband, Nate Ferguson.

“She says the truck’s on fire, and she’s just screaming, ‘It’s on fire! ‘and ‘Help me. Help me,’” Ferguson recounted hearing on the call. “And I ran down the building as fast as I could. Just all I heard the whole time was just her screaming for help.”

He said he then heard the window breaking as first responders began to pull his wife away from the crash. He said the whole situation was “terrifying.”

“It’s definitely been tough on our family, but we’re all being very supportive and doing everything we can for her,” Ferguson said. “We’re all just very thankful she’s still here. We almost lost her. It was very close.”

The couple wanted to thank the bystanders and the first responders for their actions that day.

“Thank you to all of them,” Ferguson said. “I know that the police officer and the firefighter, they’ve probably heard it a million times, but they are heroes. They really saved her life, and we don’t know how to repay them or thank them enough.”

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