Law Enforcement Veteran Pulls Man From Burning Car

Around 8:40 p.m. June 24 a driver heading south on Mason Road in Town and Country lost control of his vehicle, careening off the road and flipping his car onto its side. As the engine burst into flames, passersby called 911 and tried unsuccessfully to dislodge the driver from the burning car.

 Corporal Chris Moore was three minutes away from the scene when word of the accident came over dispatch. He was the first officer to arrive at the fiery site of the crash and, perhaps through sheer will alone, pulled the man out of his car and to safety. 

Another motorist “had managed to get (the driver’s) seatbelt cut, but they couldn’t get (the trapped driver) out because his right leg and foot were pinned, right below the knee, up into the dashboard,” Moore said. “So I gave him a tug, and he didn’t come out. And I’m thinking ‘Well, he’s got to come out,’ because I could actually see the fire starting to develop over the dashboard and into the car. So I gave him another pull, and to my amazement, he popped out. I don’t know how.”

Moore said that after freeing the driver, people at the scene helped him pull the man to safety, and it only took another 60 seconds for the flames to totally engulf he passenger area of the car. 

"Chris told me 'I wasn't going to let that guy burn up,' and he would have," Town and Country Police Captain Gary Hoelzer said. “It just reminds me that the people I work with are uncommon and display valor on a regular basis. I'm so privileged to work with these people who are so dedicated to the community and put themselves at risk. "

But Moore stresses that he just did what any other officer, firefighter or EMS worker would have done in his position. 

“Anybody in that sort of position, like a parent racing to rescue their child, you don’t even think about yourself. You just react,” Moore said. “He was coming out of that car one way or another, with or without his leg. But I wasn’t going to sit there and watch him perish in a fire.”

Moore wants anyone who hears the story of that Friday night to know that he was “just in the right place at the right time.”

Interestingly, Moore’s story is a series of time and place intersecting in just the right way, starting when he was 8, so that three decades later he could be able to reach into a flaming car and save a man’s life.

Growing up near Olive Boulevard and Highway 141, an 8-year-old Moore was with his mother at a drugstore when a St. Louis County police officer asked him how he was doing and asked if he was staying out of trouble.

“He told me ‘Just be good and you’ll never end up in jail.’ And at 8 years old that was quite impressive,” Moore said. “I became intrigued at that point for some reason and picked that profession, and from that point on never changed my mind....Just him talking to me that day totally took me down a career path I hadn’t thought about before then.”

Throughout his teens Moore was active in the Police Explorers, an offshoot of the Boy Scouts for kids interested in one day working in law enforcement. 

After high school, Moore found himself working mall security, but still wanting to become a police officer. However, he was unable to afford both living expenses and the police academy tuition. 

One night he saw the girl who tore tickets at the mall’s movie theater taking out the trash. He asked her if she might want to go swimming with him.

That was more than 19 years ago, and the theater attendant, who is now a teacher, eventually became his wife, but not before offering to help support him while he went through the St. Charles Police Academy. 

After graduating from the academy, Moore worked for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office for seven years before transferring to Town and Country, where he has been for more than 12 years. 

Going from Jefferson County to Town and Country, Moore said that he he went from being responsible for 660 square miles to 11.9 square miles. This gives him the time and ability to serve the residents of Town and Country in ways he couldn’t always do at his previous post. 

“We do vehicle lockouts and vacation checks,” Moore said. “When you’re going to get the keys out of someone’s locked car that’s not writing them a ticket or arresting them. That’s one of those services that lets citizens see us in a different light.”

Moore is a big proponent of people seeing the police as community servers and not a group of individuals to be feared. Oftentimes while out on patrol, he will shoot hoops with kids he sees playing basketball. He also goes out his way to talk to kids in the same way that St. Louis County police officer talked to him when he was 8 years old. 

Just as Moore is friendly with Town and Country residents, Moore said that the residents often make friendly gestures to him. It’s not unusual for a driver to toss him a bottle of water when he’s out directing traffic or for him to get a hamburger when driving by a family barbecuing outside. 

Having reached the rank of corporal, Moore said his goal is to make Sergeant. But at the moment, he doesn’t want to be in a position where he would not be patrolling the streets, amongst the people.

“At this stage in my life, I’m not ready to sit behind my desk. My desk is my police car,” Moore said. “Every day, I look forward to coming into work, and not everybody can say that about their job. I didn’t coin the phrase but it’s true: If you enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

Fortunately, Corporal Moore was working that Friday night. The driver involved in the accident is still hospitalized, listed in critical condition and currently in a drug-induced coma. His name has not been released, though police confirmed he is not a Town and Country resident, but is from out of state.