ORLANDO -- Their 12-hour shift was almost over when Orange County Sheriff's deputies Robert Ricks and Marco Ruiz heard the noise.
It sounded like a car accident, but at 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 10, neither deputy saw a crash.
"Based on the noise, you could tell it was more than just your average crash," Ricks recalls in a video released by the Sheriff's Office. "It was something probably pretty severe."
Ruiz says that they quickly realized the severity of the incident.
"I jump into my patrol car and turn my lights on and just start driving slowly. As we're driving, I see the guardrail missing."
A car had veered off the road along Alafaya Trail in southeast Orange County. Through the darkness, the deputies could see tail lights and smoke.
"That's when we took off through the swamp," Ricks says.
The car had flipped on its side, coming to a stop in a bed of tall grass and mud more than 20 feet from the roadway.
"We were trying to see who was in the car. We were trying to wake the person up," Ruiz says. "We were banging, trying to break a window."
The man inside the car wasn't responding. As the deputies peaked in the windows, they noticed a car seat.
"We were just trying to make sure there wasn't a small child there or that the child was pinned under him," Ruiz says.
The driver eventually regained consciousness and was able to tell the deputies that he was alone in the car. But now there was another problem. The smoke had grown thicker and the vehicle was on fire.
"That's when Marco and I knew we had to work a little bit quicker," Ricks says.
Deputy Ricks attempted to put the fire out, while Deputy Ruiz was trying to pull the man out of the car, but he was stuck.
"He was like 'I'm hurt,' and I was like 'You've got to move, man, you're going to burn,' " Ruiz says.
By now, both deputies were pulling on the man while also keeping an eye on the fire.
"There's no way I'm going to watch somebody get burned alive in front of me. That's just not an option," Ricks says.
Orange County Fire Rescue arrived on the scene and together, the deputies and firefighters pulled the man out and dragged him away from the car.
"I think we all saved his life," Ruiz says.
A married father of two, Christopher Tossas was on his way to work when he got into the accident. After he was pulled from the car, he was taken to the hospital. He had a concusion and a few minor scrapes.
"I knew I was alive, I knew I was able to move. Even though I was in pain, I could feel things and I knew that I was awake," Tossas says. "I'm blessed to be here, lucky to be alive, lucky to be able to live my life and get to see my kids."
He still has no idea what caused the crash and according to the Florida Highway Patrol, neither drugs nor alcohol were a factor in the accident.
Ricks and Ruiz typically aren't on patrol at that time in the morning. Had those deputies not been on patrol, had they not been in the area, not heard the crash and not located the car quickly, this story could have had a much, much different ending.
"Those are my angels, those are people that were able to respond quickly," Tossas says. "My wife still has a husband she gets to talk to every day and its because of them and the way that they reacted. I appreciate it so much."
Information provided by the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
