WASHINGTON - ABC 7 News was there just after a serious collision rocked the evening rush hour and closed the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Alabama Avenue Southeast Wednesday.

Fire officials say the two-car crash occurred around 4 p.m. when witnesses and people passing by became first responders. After the crash, people ran to a smoldering Cadillac and battled to get the two people trapped and injured inside to safety away from the vehicle.

When smoke pushed them back, a man rushed in with a fire extinguisher. Southeast resident Jonathan Harris saw the accident and ran to the overturned SUV. Three people were inside and the driver needed help.

"The seat belt [was] around her neck strangling her -- her leg back like this -- it was a mess," he said. "I cut the seat belt off her and pulled her out of the back, but her back was hurting too much to move her any more."

Harris says he waited with her inside the SUV, trying to keep those trapped calm until firefighters arrived. "[I said], 'It's going to be alright -- it's going to be alright,'" he said. 

Once police and fire crews were on the scene, out came the jaws of life as paramedics treated those the good Samaritans were able to free.

It took nearly 15 minutes to cut all the injured out of the two cars. Sources say five people needed to go to the hospital and one woman who suffered life-threatening injuries was airlifted to MedStar.

Police are now investigating the crash but witnesses say they saw the Cadillac speeding and say the driver may have run a red light.

And as for those who exhibited heroic actions in the moments after the crash, Harris says he was just helping a neighbor. "I'm not no hero," he said. "I wouldn't say that -- I just thank God I could help someone else out."

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