"I was scared. As soon as I grabbed the car I thought well, this could be it. But we couldn't leave them in there. They would have never made it," Ewing Police Officer Jeff Caldwell said.
It was just before 3:30 p.m. Wednesday on Lower Ferry Road in Ewing when a 2002 Honda minivan crashed into a utility pole. A live power line then caused the vehicle to erupt into a fire ball.
Just seconds before that, veteran officers Jeff Caldwell, Detective Mike Pellegrino and their colleague Officer Fred Dow executed a daring and dangerous rescue to free two people trapped inside that van. And they did it despite the 13,000 volts of electricity coursing through that downed line.
"You could hear the humming of the lines. They were lying right on top of the car and they were loud and probably sounded like a motor of some kind because the transformer was right next to the pole and the passenger's side," Detective Pellegrino said.
As the vehicle filled with smoke, the officers pulled 81-year-old Frances Kaplan and her 55-year -old son Harris through the driver's side window. The driver, 80-year-old Marvin Kaplan, got out on his own. Amazingly, no one was electrocuted.
"I knew it probably wasn't the right thing to do, but there wasn't really any alternative because within a couple minutes the entire car was engulfed in flames, so we couldn't leave them in the car," Caldwell said.
"Driving home last night it really set in and I was like 'wow, something really bad could have happened.' But you know what? It was just not our time," Pellegrino said.
It wasn't until PSE&G arrived that firemen were able to douse the flaming vehicle, which was burned right down to its frame.
Today, some are calling the officers heroes.
"That's a big risk right there because you're risking your life to go and even engage with that accident like that," Ewing resident Alex Pineda said.
