Heroes Recall Rescue of 2 Officers From Fiery Death

Moments after he watched a police car slam into the side of an empty school bus, Gregorio Vega ran to the two police officers pinned inside their crumpled car. Blood covered their faces.

“To me, they were dead,” Vega said Tuesday of the accident last June.

Then, one of the officers stirred, and Vega pulled the men out of their burning vehicle while Larry and Samuel West doused the flames.

Vega and the West brothers, all Pacoima residents, recounted their actions after receiving citations Tuesday from the Los Angeles Police Commission.

Two other men who foiled robbery attempts, Marco Gonzalez of Montebello and James Fell of Los Angeles, also received certificates for bravery during a brief afternoon ceremony at Parker Center.

“Each one of these people is really a profile in courage,” Robert M. Talcott, commission president, said of the five honorees. “We respect your courage and your devotion to the community.”

Vega, 62, a retired truck driver, was driving home from the store June 30 when he saw the loud and fiery crash at the corner of Dronfield Avenue and Paxton Street in Pacoima.

The patrol car, chasing two car-theft suspects, had broadsided the bus, flipping it on its side. The car’s front end was destroyed.

Samuel West, 47, and Larry West, 35, were working in their garage, attaching a trailer hitch to a car, when the bus and patrol car hit. “I heard the siren going and brakes screeching,” Samuel West said.

As the Wests ran from their Paxton Street home to help, Vega was already trying to pull Officers Steven Mulldorfer and Julian Almaraz from the car, which by then was in flames.

The men were in shock with concussions and internal injuries. Almaraz regained consciousness briefly, Vega said, and grabbed the car radio to call for help. Then he passed out.

Vega, who had undergone back surgery six weeks earlier, said he widened a hole in the door with a few kicks and reached in to release the door.

The West brothers, meanwhile, ran onto the bus looking for children. Seeing it was empty, Samuel West, a Baptist minister, sent his wife for a fire extinguisher that the family kept at home.

“I figured the most important thing was getting the fire out,” he said.

West had never used an extinguisher before, but he doused the flames before firefighters and police arrived.

Both officers lived, but neither has returned to work, Almaraz said Tuesday.

The day’s events remain a blur to him, he said. “The only thing I remember is that we had roll call, had some coffee, and we went out.”