A former Tulare County Sheriff's Deputy is being hailed as a hero for helping save a woman from a burning car that had been hit by a suspected drunk driver. Michelle Fife was driving home Sunday night when she came upon a horrible accident on Mooney Blvd. in Tulare. She helped a police officer pull the driver of one of the cars out of the burning wreckage.
Luz Gonzales was driving southbound on Mooney when a car veered into the wrong lane and hit her head on. There were four passengers in the car. Two of the passengers were killed and another was able to get out, but Luz was trapped. Fife stopped and helped the lone officer on the scene pull Luz from the wreckage Her father, Fred Gonzales, met Fife today and called her an angel and a hero for saving his daughter.
The driver of the other car, Eliazar Nambo Gomez of Fresno, has been charged with felony DUI and two counts of vehicular manslaughter.
Our media partner, the Visalia Times Delta, identified the two people who died in the accident as David Lee Loza, 27, of Porterville and Felipe Samuel Beltran, 28, of Strathmore.