Oregon Live: It’s not every day that you see a car burning in front of you. So when Phillipe Bittar and his 16-year-old brother, Raphael, spotted flames and thick smoke rising from a sedan Saturday at a Raleigh Hills Chevron station, they stopped to take a picture. Then they noticed the woman inside.
Another woman ran up to the car and desperately tried to open the passenger side door as the fire spread to a gas pump and worked its way through the car’s trunk. The passenger, who firefighters say is in her 70s, was shaking in the seat. “Seeing her like that hit me in a certain way that just made me react,” said Bittar, 19, of Raleigh Hills.
Though a Chevron attendant scrambled to shut the lines that flow gasoline to the pumps, Bittar didn’t see anyone else trying to help and ran to the car. By this time the flames had reached the back seats, and the woman in the car was still frantically trying to free herself. Bittar looked for another way in.
Then with only one punch, the former Beaverton High School linebacker shattered the window. The 19-year-old told the woman he was going to get her out. He reached in and grabbed her under her armpits and pulled her through the window. “She was light in my arms,” he said.
Once out of the car, Bittar held her up and walked her over to two other women, who embraced her. Then they hugged and thanked him. By the time Bittar turned back to look at the car, it was engulfed in flames.
Adrenaline helped mask the heat of the fire and the initial pain of smashing the window with his bare fist, Bittar said. Firefighters responded around 2:15 p.m. to the station along Southwest Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, and paramedics treated the cuts on his hand.
The woman, whose name has not been released, was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation, said Alisa Cour, a Tualatin Fire & Rescue spokeswoman. She was taken to a hospital as a precaution, but is expected to recover.
What caused the fire is still under investigation, Cour said. No one else was injured.
Firefighters likely would not have been able to reach the woman in time had Bittar not gotten her out, said Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Battalion Chief Leonard Damian. “His actions were nothing short of heroic,” he said.
The Bittar brothers: Phillipe (l) and Raphael (r)
The brothers had been leaving a nearby New Seasons Market to get some food when they drove toward the gas station and saw the burning car. Afterward, once the woman was safe, Bittar said that he felt dazed as he watched the flames consume the car.
“I didn’t really have much time to think and process everything as it was happening,” he said. “But seeing the fire and the car and knowing she was out, it really hit me that I saved her life, and it felt really good.”
Bittar, a pre-med student at Oregon State University who is on summer break, said he’s often seen videos on YouTube of people captured in life-or-death situations and always wondered how he would react if he happened upon one.
He comes from a family of people who work in the medical field and hopes to become a doctor one day. He said he’s relieved to know that he won’t shy away from a situation where someone needs help. “I just wanted to make sure she was safe,” Bittar said. “Now that I know she is, I know I’ll be able to rest a little easier tonight.”
DCG