Goodyear off-duty detective recognized for heroism by Peoria Fire

The Peoria Fire Department honored an off-duty Goodyear police officer and two civilians for their actions in extracting an individual from a burning vehicle Wednesday.

The incident occurred after multiple vehicles collided May 9 at the intersection of Grand Avenue and 91st Avenue.

According to Peoria Fire Department, a Goodyear Police detective, Bengt Erickson, stepped in to pull a man to safety that night.

“I was able to see him through the windshield and I yelled at him that he needed to get out of the vehicle,” he said. “It was smoky but I didn't know if it was on fire, like immediately after the accident. We ended up pulling the individual out; these two individuals were already going at it, breaking out the window.”

The two good Samaritans who helped the detective were Johnny Isordia and Matthew Arizmendez.

Isordia said they immediately jumped into action after seeing Erickson lead the way.

“He was already on the scene helping them out and we jumped out of the car and just started running to it immediately trying to see if we can give him a hand,” he said. “And we saw that the guy wasn't speaking, someone started breaking the window. And we just pulled him out, and by the time we started to see the fire, we just knew we had to get them out as quickly as possible.”

Goodyear Police Chief praised the work and collaboration of Goodyear and Peoria.

“No one succeeds alone,” Miller said. “That public safety never sleeps on or off duty and I'm especially proud of the work that we did in this case. Exceptionally proud of the fact that our communities got together and save some lives.”