2 IMPD officers rescue woman from burning car crashed into church

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A woman on Thursday was hospitalized after her car crashed into an entrance to the iconic Second Presbyterian Church and burst into flames.

Two Indianapolis police officers were nearby when the crash happened, and they rescued the 61-year-old woman from the burning Ford car, says a news release from Rita Reith, a spokeswoman for the Indianapolis Fire Department.

Officer William Young, a spokesman for Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, said in a media notification that the driver was awake and breathing at a hospital, and crash investigators were sent to the church. The fire department’s release says she was taken to Ascension St. Vincent Hospital-Indianapolis hospital.

Reith told News 8 at the scene that the woman was apparently driving north in the 7700 block of North Meridian Street when she crossed through traffic, went off the road and onto the church’s lawn, and crashed into the front of the church. Authorities have not publicly identified the woman. Investigators did not immediately know what caused the woman to leave the road.

Chris Henry, the Senior Pastor at Second Presbyterian Church, said security footage captured the driver crashing into the church.

“It appears that she accelerated as she got closer to the church,” Henry said.

IMPD officers Aaron Duncan and Holly Armstrong, who joined the department in March, happened to be in the church’s rear parking lot, the release says.

“Both Duncan and Armstrong raced over to the building where the car presented with heavy fire from the engine compartment. The fire was impinging on the interior,” the fire department release says. “Working as a team, Duncan and Armstrong pulled the semi-conscious woman from the car and carried her to a nearby grassy area.”

Duncan, who is also an emergency medical technician, provided basic life support before Indianapolis EMS medics arrived. Armstrong used a fire extinguisher from Duncan’s car to try to address the blaze before firefighters arrived.

Duncan received a slight injury to his hand and was taken to be checked, the release says.

IMPD was dispatched at 4:33 p.m. Thursday to the church for what the computer-aided dispatch system listed as a possible fatal accident with serious bodily injury. The fire department was dispatched at the same time to a working building fire at the church’s address.

The fire was determined to be under control just before 5 p.m.

Henry said the church’s interior was not damaged.

“We’re really fortunate and blessed that the structural damage is minor and it’s just to the limestone,” Henry said. “The wooden doors were not struck and there’s no fire damage to the inside of the church.”

A few members of the massive church, who were inside when the crash happened, didn’t know about it until they were notified, the fire department’s release says.

“Inside the church, no one has been injured in the church no one on our church staff or the congregation,” Henry said. “Our prayers are with her, with the driver, with her family, with those who love her. We do not know who she is at this point but she is a beloved child of God.”

Second Presbyterian Church began in 1823, with its first church on Monument Circle. The Gothic Revival church on North Meridian Street opened in 1959.

The WISHTV.com traffic map showed severe backups in the area just after 5 p.m. Thursday.

This story was updated to show the car was driving north on Meridian Street.