Planned Companies is proud to recognize a group of our employees who went above and beyond to save the life of an individual in distress near the Parkmerced residential building in San Francisco last month. Rodrigo Martinez, Jose Benavidez, German Flores and Tomas Funez are janitorial and maintenance personnel employed by Planned Building Services. Around noon on February 6, while performing their daily tasks at Parkmerced, Benavidez heard a tire bursting nearby. When he looked up, he witnessed a car falling from 19th Ave to the Felix Garages area. Without hesitation, these brave men all ran up the hill towards the scene of distress.
Noticing the car had been turned sideways and hearing calls for aid from the car, Martinez jumped atop the vehicle and began attempts to open the car door to pull the driver out safely. With the impact of the car’s sideways fall, however, the door would not yet budge enough to pull the driver out. Flores, without hesitation, rushed in to lend a hand. He was able to get the door open just barely enough to squeeze the driver out safely. Meanwhile, Benavidez received the injured driver and rushed him away from the car to safety. With the car engulfed in growing flames from the crash, Funez retrieved the fire extinguisher to put out the flames. Just minutes after the driver was rescued, the flames had become too large to put out, and the car exploded.
When emergency personnel arrived at the scene, the driver was in shock, but conscious. They escorted him to the hospital where he has since been released in stable condition. The fire chief informed all in presence that these brave men were heroes. Had they not acted swiftly and courageously as they had, the driver would have certainly been dead within the next two minutes.
Today we are extremely humbled and honored to be able to once again, award recognition to our exceptional employees – Rodrigo Martinez, Jose Benavidez, German Flores and Tomas Funez – who will now forever be remembered as heroes of Parkmerced.
*Pictured above, Rodrigo Martinez and German Flores pose as heroes while discussing the event. To the right, a picture of the firemen who rushed to extinguish the flames, after the car erupted in explosion.