Officer Saves Three From Flames After Auto Crash

A Fullerton police officer pulled an 18-year-old man from the back seat of a burning station wagon Sunday night after the driver, suspected of being intoxicated, ran the vehicle into a tree, Police Sgt. Douglas Cave said.

Cave said the officer could not extricate the driver and another passenger, who was seriously injured, from the front seat, but managed to extinguish the fire before it burned them. Fire Department rescuers later used machinery to cut them free, Cave said.

All three were being treated for serious injuries at local hospitals. The driver, Juana Castillo, 29, of Fullerton, was arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving, Cave said.

Meanwhile, an 18-year-old Lakewood man was in critical condition after his motorcycle struck a car in Buena Park, Buena Park Police Lt. Gary Hicken said.

The man was not wearing a helmet when his motorcycle struck a car at the intersection of Crescent Avenue and Los Altos Drive about 5:18 p.m., Hicken said. The victim slid with the motorcycle about 200 feet and sustained serious head injuries, Hicken said.

The man was on life-support systems in Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center Sunday night, Hicken said.

In the Fullerton crash, Police Officer Steve Bair was taking a collision report near Harbor Boulevard when he saw the 1981 Ford station wagon leave the road near La Entrada Place, hit a tree and then catch fire, Cave said.

Pedro Martinez, 18, of Fullerton, was pulled from the back seat, Cave said. Martinez, who suffered facial lacerations and possible other internal injuries, was being treated at UCI Medical Center Sunday night.

Driver Castillo and front-seat passenger Ricardo Torres, 21, of Santa Ana, were trapped in the vehicle, Cave said, until rescuers pried them free after Bair extinguished the fire.

Torres was taken by helicopter to Western Medical Center-Anaheim, Cave said. He suffered a broken left leg and internal injuries, and underwent surgery.

In another incident, Westminster police were investigating whether alcohol was to blame for the death of a 33-year-old Fullerton man whose body was found in his parked Thunderbird behind a liquor store shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday. A number of liquor bottles were found in the car, and alcohol poisoning is considered a possibility, Police Sgt. Jack Davidson said.

The coroner’s office identified the man as Gary Lee Brinson, but had had not determined the cause of death.

“He was just lying in the vehicle,” Davidson said. “There were no apparent signs of a struggle.”