DUII suspect rescued from burning SUV near Hwy. 20

A Bend man suspected of driving drunk was rescued by a passing citizen Monday night after his SUV left Highway 20 west of Bend, got stuck and caught fire, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said. He then was arrested and jailed on a DUII charge.

Two deputies located the burning 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee around 7:30 p.m. down a 10-foot embankment at the intersection of Highway 20 and the Old Bend-Redmond Highway, Sgt. Kevin Dizney said.

Deputies saw a citizen who had been passing by pull the man, later identified as Brian Zane Larson, 56, and away from the car that was becoming fully involved in flames that were spreading to nearby trees and brush.

Deputies helped the good Samaritan, a 29-year-old Bend man, pull the driver away from the burning car and quickly determined no one else was inside, Dizney said. Bend firefighters responded and extinguished the fire.

Dizney said an investigation determined Larson’s Jeep had left the highway for unknown reasons, went down the embankment “at likely low speed before becoming stuck on a dirt mount in the vacant lot.”

The citizen rescuer said Larson had been in the driver’s seat and the tires were spinning on the stuck Jeep. As he tried to contact Larson, he saw the car catch fire, by unknown cause.

“Without the fast action by this citizen to remove Larson from the vehicle, this incident could have ended in a fatality,” Dizney said in a news release.

Deputies determined Larson was not injured but “was heavily intoxicated with alcohol,” Dizney said. He was arrested on a DUII charge and booked into the Deschutes County Jail. A jail officer said he was released to a responsible third party Tuesday morning.

The Jeep was heavily damaged by the fire and removed from the scene. Dizney said deputies are investigating the cause of the crash and fire, but that speed did not appear to be a factor. Traffic in the area was light at the time, he added.