Watch a TV photographer save a pregnant woman from a burning car

Patrick Perry spends a lot of time at work behind a camera. But video of him rescuing a pregnant woman from a burning car on Tuesday has earned him the label of hero.

Perry, a TV photographer for WBRZ in Baton Rouge, La., and co-worker Brittany Weiss were on their way to an assignment when they saw a car burning on the side of the road.

The TV station reported later that the driver, a 21-year-old woman who was seven months pregnant, had for unknown reasons lost control and crashed into some trees along the highway. The sports car burst into flames.

A video posted to Facebook shows what happened after the two stopped to help.

Perry ran to the car while Weiss grabbed a camera and started recording.

He couldn’t reach the woman through the driver’s side, so he pulled her out of the smoke-filled car, flames leaping nearby, through the passenger’s side.

“Hold on tight,” he told her as he lifted her out.

He carried her away from the car as Weiss and another motorist talked to emergency personnel on a cell phone. Another driver ran up carrying a fire extinguisher.

“Nothing out here, so somebody has to save her,” Perry said later in an on-camera interview.

The woman was hospitalized with injuries and Weiss later reported that the baby was OK and the woman was in stable condition.

“You cover stories like this but rarely witness a hero first hand,” Weiss wrote on Facebook.

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 11:03 AM with the headline "Watch a TV photographer save a pregnant woman from a burning car."