The Daily News of Los Angeles
SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. — Four of the five men seen in dramatic amateur video pulling an unconscious driver from a burning classic car in Sherman Oaks on Sunday were identified publicly Wednesday and hailed as heroes.
The men stopped to help after they saw a classic 1932 Ford Victoria sedan engulfed in thick smoke on Burbank Boulevard Sunday morning.
Steve Sotello, a chauffeur who was passing by, was the first to run toward the burning vehicle.
“Nobody was helping me and that’s when I called for help,” said Sotello, a Van Nuys resident.
Another man, Chris Oxley of Sherman Oaks, heard Sotello shouting and leaped out of his car.
“The guy (Sotello) was screaming, ‘Help me! Help me! Help me! He’s burning!”’
They were soon joined by Fernando Martinez, David Taylor and another still-unidentified man, all frantically working to free the unconscious driver.
The Ford had been rear-ended on Burbank Boulevard at Vesper Avenue. The force of the crash forced the classic sedan into oncoming traffic, where it erupted in flames. Robert Edlefsen, a 69-year-old retired accountant, was unconscious inside.
Oxley said he saw an explosion that reminded him of a giant light bulb that popped. He saw black smoke rise at least two stories high.
“There was no way I could just drive away,” said Oxley, who is seen in the video in a maroon shirt, helping Sotello.
“What if that was me in the car and I was expecting someone to help me and no one did?” Oxley said.
Oxley said he came upon the scene Sunday morning while he was taking his 12-year-old son to a baseball game.
As he prepared to run out of the car, Oxley’s son begged him not to go.
“My son was like ‘Dad no, it looks dangerous. Don’t go’,” and I said, ‘You know what, Bill, I have to go look’.”
Several men had joined in to help break windows and to free Edlefsen, who had on an old-fashioned lap belt.
Oxley and the other men freed Edlefsen and dragged him away from the car. The older man was unconscious, but slowly began breathing normally and opened his eyes.
“I saw him start breathing and I actually thought, ‘Thank God, no CPR’.”
“I would do it again in a heartbeat” Sotello said. “I wasn’t going to leave that guy in the car to burn. I think I would have gone down with him.”
Edlefsen, who suffered some cracked vertebrae, bruises and burns, told television reporters Wednesday that he owed the men who saved him.
“I’m so thankful that I’m still here,” the 69-year-old retired accountant said. “How thankful I am that there are still people like that. I owe these guys my life.”
Police did not charge the driver who rear-ended the Ford, calling it an accident.
Police initially did not have the names of the good Samaritans and issued a call on Monday for the public to help in identifying them. Three of them, Oxley, Martinez and Taylor, came forward to police, while Sotello was interviewed by the Daily News on Wednesday near the scene of the crash, where he lives nearby.
Meanwhile, police continue to search for more heroes.
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