The Pasadena Fire Department is coming together in support of a local 17-year-old whose passion is to be part of their team. 

But that dream was almost shattered over the weekend after a fiery crash. 

“The situation I’m currently in is very hard, but overall I’m just trying to move forward,” America Salmeron said. 

She says she is not giving up. The teenager is recovering after a weekend trip to Las Vegas with her family almost ended her life. 

“This is not real, so they didn’t feel anything,” said Marta Sara, the teen’s mother. “So I saw my daughter’s picture and I started crying.” 

The entire fire department is behind this effort, saying Salmeron was in the early stages of training to become a firefighter but her accident this past weekend has put everything on pause.

The teenager was in a hospital bed in Las Vegas over the weekend.

The dune buggy she and a male companion were riding on flipped and bursted out in flames. Salmeron says she became trapped but someone was able to pull herself out of the seat and walk away before the vehicle exploded. more than half of her body has severe burns including third degree burns in her upper body.  

The Pasadena teenager, according to firefighter Jose Aguirre, was in good spirits during his visit to the hospital. 

He said she was enrolled in the department’s explorer program and was on her way to the Verdugo Fire Academy which would train her to start her career as a firefighter.

“Next year we were hoping to sponsor her, to send her to Verdugo Fire Academy, which is the academy that would prepare her to start applying for fire departments and hopefully become one of our own,” Aguirre said, “She truly is what we need in the fire service for tomorrow.”

Salmeron said she went back to her training and stayed calm and said this wasn’t the way I’m goin out and give myself a chance. She has been super positive and knows her fire family is supporting anything she may need.