A Hillsborough Police officer pulled a man from a burning vehicle Thursday morning, shortly before the vehicle was engulfed in flames.

Officials said that officer Mike Toellen joined an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy who was flagged down by a citizen around 1:40 Thursday morning on Old NC 86. The citizen told the law enforcement officers that a vehicle was on fire in the middle of a field.

Toellen saw smoke and flames in and around the car, according to a release, and began searching the vehicle for any occupants. Toellen eventually found a man lying on the back seat of the vehicle and pulled the man from the burning car.

“This is the kind of officer Mike Toellen is,” Hillsborough police chief Duane Hampton said in a release. “Every day he goes out to help the community, and in this case he was able to save a life in a dangerous situation.”

The incident was under the investigatory jurisdiction of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Orange Rural Fire Department.

Hillsborough officials say this follows another life-saving act from an officer after an apparent overdose was reversed when an officer used naloxone on a victim in late July.

Toellen’s body cam footage was released by the Town of Hillsborough on Friday afternoon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc08KMwmWOI

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