Security guard rescues man from burning car after Ronkonkoma crash

An off-duty security guard dragged an unconscious driver from a burning vehicle that had crashed into woods off the Long Island Expressway service road in Ronkonkoma on Wednesday, authorities said.

The guard, Joseph DeSena, 30, remembered futilely hitting the front window of the burning Jeep with a tire iron about 20 times before throwing a jack with all his might into the back window. It shattered, he said, and he crawled from the back into a car that was "hot as hell," unlocked the driver's side door and became what the local fire chief called a hero.

"I unlocked the door, then pulled the guy out of the car across the street by the collar of his shirt," said DeSena, whose work pants had holes burned in them. "That was the craziest experience I've ever experienced in my life."

Minutes after the rescue, he said, he just sat on the roadway, the adrenaline pumping through him causing his "hysteric" tears as medics treated the man he saved. 

Lakeland Fire Chief Rich Mancuso responded with about 20 other firefighters. "I went over and shook his hand and told him, 'You're the only reason why the gentleman in that ambulance right now is still here.' "

The driver was taken to Stony Book University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

DeSena was on his way to shop at a nearby Walmart store when he saw the Jeep ahead of him brake suddenly and crash, a puff of white smoke billowing out.

Suffolk County police said the Jeep driver, 29, had swerved to avoid crashing into another vehicle on the westbound service road near Terry Road at about 5:15 p.m. The Jeep was engulfed in flames when officers arrived, police said.

At the same location but across the service road on Edgewood Avenue, another Jeep driver had died in a fiery wreck after a crash on July 4.

DeSena said his grandmother lives nearby on the service road and he knows there have been several crashes at that point in the road. He said the road curves just before the crash scene and he believes drivers are taken by surprise when they emerge from the curve and suddenly see a red light ahead.

Since the rescue, DeSena said, he has called practically everyone on his cell phone contact list to tell them what had happened, including his employer, Garrison Security in Nesconset.

"That's crazy, dude," DeSena said his friends told him.

DeSena said he was worried the engine was going to blow but he felt no fear as he tried repeatedly to save the driver: "I just knew I had to get it done."