A Good Samaritan Saves a Life : Traffic: An off-duty firefighter, with the help of two other witnesses, rescued a Garden Grove man pinned in his car after a fiery crash on the San Diego Freeway.

An off-duty firefighter on his way to his father’s home for Christmas turned good Samaritan Monday when he revived a Garden Grove man who was badly hurt in a fiery crash that temporarily blocked the San Diego Freeway.

According to the California Highway Patrol, Jong Young Lee, 37, was seriously injured about 9:40 a.m. when he plowed into the back of a 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass that had slowed suddenly on the Garden Grove Freeway where it merges with the San Diego.

Lee’s 1988 Mercury Sable overturned and the Cutlass jumped a concrete divider and caught fire in the slow lanes of the San Diego Freeway. The Cutlass driver, Tuan Bui, 23, of Long Beach, escaped with neck and back sprains, but Lee was pinned in his car in such a way that he could not breathe.

Within minutes, he was pulled from the wreckage by Jim Larsen, a Santa Ana firefighter-paramedic, and Wayne Oatis, an off-duty Los Angeles police officer. Larsen cleared Lee’s windpipe and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“He was fine after we got him out,” Larsen said Monday. “He had collapsed on his neck and his airway was cut off. We probably saved his life. I’m not going to blow my own horn, but we got him out OK.”

Larsen, 33, a six-year veteran of the Santa Ana Fire Department, said he had just come off duty and was driving to his father’s home when he saw the flames from the accident. Traffic was backed up, and Larsen had to make his way on foot for an estimated quarter of a mile to the crash scene. He arrived several minutes before emergency crews.

Larsen said he crawled into the wreckage, released Lee’s seat belt, and with Oatis’ help pulled Lee from the car. They were assisted by Marine Cpl. Richard Collins from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Base.

Lee had hit the steering wheel and suffered massive head and chest injuries. He was airlifted to the trauma center at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, where he was listed in serious but stable condition Monday night.

Bui was reported in good condition at Los Alamitos Medical Center.

“Lee was taken out of the car by witnesses on the scene,” said CHP Officer Lyle Whitten, a highway patrol spokesman. “He was not breathing until he was removed from the car. Larsen cleared the airway, and the others helped in that.”

Whitten said the Garden Grove-San Diego freeway interchange had to be closed for about 10 minutes to allow a LifeFlight helicopter to evacuate Lee.

Overall, traffic was partly blocked for about an hour on the northbound San Diego and westbound Garden Grove, backing up cars for about a mile on both roads, according to the CHP.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. Whitten said he did not know whether Lee was following too close to Bui or why Bui had slowed suddenly as he was trying to enter the San Diego Freeway.