Sheriff’s Deputy Is Praised for Heroic Rescue

The situation had all the elements of a TV drama: early morning darkness, an alert patrolman, a burning vehicle with a man trapped inside.

Brad Fowler, an Orange County sheriff’s deputy, came upon the scene at 4 a.m. Sunday in a San Juan Capistrano parking lot.

“At first I thought it was a stolen vehicle set on fire,” said Fowler, 38. “Then I saw a hand banging on the window and heard a loud scream.”

Fowler, a nine-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, used his flashlight to smash a window of the burning 1986 Mazda pickup and pulled Jackson Donre to safety just seconds before an explosion that could have killed them both.

“When I first pulled him out,” Fowler said, “his shoe was on fire and his right leg was smoldering.”

Donre, 23, was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where he was reported in fair condition with second- and third-degree burns on his left calf. Monday, the San Clemente resident issued a statement of gratitude to the deputy.

“I remember him rescuing me,” Donre said, “and I want to thank him for risking his life.”

Fowler, meanwhile, was being treated as a hero by department officials, who released a 10-minute videotape shot from a camera mounted in the deputy’s patrol car.

But he reacted with modesty to all the hoopla, describing the rescue as just part of his job. “When I was done,” he said, “I went home and it seemed like any other day.”

Fowler said his wife seemed to take the news in stride.

“She was a little more concerned when she saw the videotape,” he said. “I haven’t shown it to my mom yet. I don’t think I will.”