Heroic driver rescues motorist from vehicle fire in Joliet Township

A semitrailer driver has been praised for rescuing the 33-year-old driver of another vehicle from a fire after a crash in Joliet Township.

At 10:06 p.m. Wednesday, firefighters responded to a crash in which a Ford Escape had struck a light pole on Laraway Road near Paterson Road, according to a statement from Joliet Fire Chief Jeff Carey.

When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found the vehicle was fully engulfed in flames with a concrete light pole on top of it, Carey said.

Before the firefighters arrived, a semitrailer driver named Rashpal Saini had passed by the scene and pulled the 33-year-old male driver out of the vehicle, Carey said.

Saini is a driver for Hub Group in Indiana, he said.

Saini then tried to extinguish the fire with his own fire extinguisher, Carey said.

The driver of the Ford Escape had an “altered level of consciousness” from the crash that caused him to not be able to get out of the burning vehicle, Carey said.

“Had it not been for the heroic action of this semi-driver, the driver probably would not have survived,” Carey said.

Joliet firefighters eventually extinguished the vehicle fire, he said.

The Ford Escape driver was taken to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox in “good condition,” Carey said.