Santa Fe Police Officer Craig Ernst likely saved the life of a suspected drunken driver early Thursday when he pulled an unconscious 19-year-old woman from a burning car on the city's south side, The New Mexican reported.

Ernst arrived at the intersection of Zia Road and Candelero Street around 1:45 a.m. Thursday to find a car on fire and filled with smoke, Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler told The New Mexican.

The officer was unable to see anyone inside the car, so he broke up a piece of cinderblock from a wall the car had crashed into, broke the rear driver's side window and saw a woman slumped over the steering wheel, the paper reported.

Ernst reached in and opened the driver's door and dragged the woman to safety, with the help of other officers who had arrived on scene, said Wheeler who congratulated the officer for a "heroic job," The New Mexican said.

The woman -- 19-year-old Liliana Canales-Anaya of Santa Fe -- had been knocked unconscious in the accident, smelled of alcohol and admitted to drinking, police told The New Mexican.

She was taken to St. Vincent Regional Medical Center for a blood test, then to Santa Fe County Jail where she was booked for driving while intoxicated and careless driving, the paper reported.

Ernst is a former Santa Fe County sheriff's deputy and detective who has been with the police department for less than a year, according to The New Mexican. 

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