I know that me being a volunteer firefighter right now and becoming a paid firefighter i have seen my share of deaths and bad accidents and i know i will see hundreds if not thousands more in my career. But for some reason this wreck i came up on last wednesday wont get out of my head. The things i saw shook me up pretty bad. Its weird b/c like i said i have seen this before and it never effected me. I guess its because normally i already have the mindset of what is to come while i am getting in my bunker gear and rolling down the highway in a firetruck with lights and sirens blaring. This time i was not......

I came up on this wreck last wednesday on my way back from Randy's Muffler in Hearne. I had JUST left his shop and was coming over the hill right out of hearne when i saw fire and smoke up ahead around the turn. I figured it was just someone burning brush but the way it just came out of nowhere and wasn't thick black smoke like most fires that are started with accelerants had me wondering. Well sure enough as soon as i came around the corner i see one 18 wheeler in the ditch smashed up, a chevy equinox smashed in the front with the driver's face bloody, and then a ford explorer that looks to be torn up bad and on its side in the ditch. The explorer was on fire! So i am the second person to stop and i run over to the explorer (it was in the worst condition). As i was running to the car i went through about 50 yards of big debris but never looked down. I was worried about getting anyone that was still in the car out before they burned up. Sure enough when i run up to the car i see a guy inside and pinned under the passenger seat. I kicked out what was left of the windshield and climbed in as 2 other guys tried to extenguish the fire with extenguishers. I unbuckled the seatbelt and started to rip the seat up. ( i dont know if the seat was already broke or my adrenaline was going but i managed to break the seat enough to move him a little). He wasn't responding and after it was apparent i wasn't going to be able to get him out i checked his pulse and found he didn't have one. He was pretty messed up and obviously dead now.

So after my wits come back i start to walk back up the road......i'm still waiting on EMS, Fire, and Police to arrive. As i start walking through the same debris i had ran through previously i happen to look down and laying there beside me is a woman that was driving the car!!!! She is DEFINATELY dead. I have never seen a body so mangled. There wasn't even a reason to check for a pulse on her. I got a tarp out of the 18 wheelers cargo box and put it over her.

Here is a link to the story. You can click on the raw footage and the story to see both versions. You can see my camaro on the road in a couple shots.
http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/9750032.html

Like i said ya'll dont have to say anything i just had to get it off of my chest.

Brent

 

I commend you for stopping and trying to help. I don't know how you guys do it. I just couldn't take seeing someone like that. It would totally tear me up.

 

It takes alot to go threw somthing like this. My dad did this about 2 years ago and it took him a couple of weeks to get over it.

 

damn brent, im sure they were glad to have you help them. i commend you friend. you have to get used to it though.

 

you are the definition of a hero, seeing something like that and not quitting has to be ridiculous

 

Nothing Less than a Hero my friend!!! You give your all to save lives !!!! There was nothing more you could do........Alot of ppl would have just watched...Sad but true...

 

oh yah i know. And its not that i have to really "get used to it" i have dealt with this and seen accidents just like this several times with my volunteer department and in my EMS training. I guess this one is just bothering me the most because i wasn't in my "Firefighter Zone" ya know? I was just driving down the road with my brand new exhaust and a BIG *** smile on my face when all of a sudden BAM! and this happens......

 

Im a medic in the army and watched a guy get hit by a car today and sprinted over there to see if he was ok. You just do what you are trained to do.

Its a great job you do.

 

Thanks for doing what you do to keep the rest of us safe.

 

Thanks for being there for people in need!

99 FRC

 

Im sorry that this scene is harder for you to forget than others. Please keep doing what your doing. So many other people would not have stopped first of all. Second of all there are few and far between that choose the career you have chosen.

Thank you!

 

I know what you mean exactly. I was on a ride along with my Uncle when we watched a convertible go underneath an 18 wheelers trailer. The car went flying off into a field and came to stop about forty feet away. As we were approaching the car the woman in the passenger seat jumped up and started to run through the field. Within fifteen feet she collapsed there and didnt get up again. The crazy thing is that the trailer had decapitated the two people in the car. So this headless woman, jumped up with blood still pooling out of her neck and ran fifteen feet before collapsing. They said her last conscious thought was to jump up and run, so her nerves just took over once the car came to a stop. Much like cutting the head off of a chicken. I still have nightmares seeing that woman run without a head. Most horrific thing I have ever witnessed.

 

Brent I've been there and know how you are feeling. We had a fatality accident at home about a month ago that I worked. It involved a ft hood soldier and his son and daughter. Both the father and the son died in the collision and the 3 year old girl was life flighted. That hardest thing about it was the children involved. My daughter is seven and it really hit home since the boy was six or so I think.

 

the more you see the harder it will all be to forget. some friends of my family,an older couple told me stories...he was a retired fireman but she was the one telling my mom that he still woke up in cold sweats from having nitemares over some of the accidents he had seen.one in particular where he had to pull a lady out of the car but she was so burned her skin came off on his gloves and that vision combined with the smell of her burnt skin bother him to this day...20-30yrs later. ive had my life saved and had a chance to save 2 others and to me there isnt anything better one person can do for another but my point is if you keep doing what you're doing you will probably see more of it.

 

Don't know what to say other than thank you!

 

i know whats thats like...when i was living in houston for college my friend got a street bike ninja 600...well i rode the bike that day left it at his house left the apt, went and loaded my other friends TL 100 suzuki in my truck (didnt take no more than 15 mins
Well while i was load the bike i heard all kinda sirens and ****, well on my way ack home i see were they were goin....some car had pulled out infront of my friend and he had t-boned them no less than 1 block from our apt. so i jump outa my truck and freak i saw my friend lying there dead in the middle of 1960 in houston...that was hard...after that the police pulled me aside and asked me to ID the body seing as how his family lived in lousiana. well i did and that was the most blood that i had ever seen in my life . the police officer in the end hands me a blood soaked cell phone(my friends) and his blood soaked wallet, well i cleaned them up as good as i could and take the stuff to his house were his GF was at with all of our friends from school and the apt complex....its ruff...that was in my head for weeks....makes u grow up REALLY fast...

Justin Reynolds

 

I can only imagine how that was for you... One of my buddies had a german shepherd that got hit by a car.. and even that shook me up for a couple weeks. You're a stand up guy for stopping/doing all you could.

 

The worst thing i have ever seen was a Motorcycle that tried to to a wheelie at about 90 and just rolled right on over. i went by maybe 5 mins after it happened a few people there, and i rolled past and asked if i could help. and the guy goes uh no i dont think so. So i roll right on past because i know what was going on, my dad is also a vol. fireman and ive heard my share of stories. And as i went past i say him laying on the ground, with his head wide open and half missing.

After thati really dont think i will ever get a bike. I really dont know how you guys do it but my hats off to all Firefighter emt's and and other public service guys.

 

I have alot of respect for you guys, I don't know how you all do it.

 

Wow, thats a rough accident man.

I'm glad you actually have enough sence of mind to talk about it, one of the biggest problems with "post tramatic stress" with firefighters is most of them never talk about it. My cheif makes a point to have a debriefing after every major incident, just to make sure anyone who is not well can have someone to talk to.

I too have some calls stuck it my head, and i've only been in the fire service for just under 6 years. One that comes to mind is hearing "MADAY MADAY Firefighter down! Last seen falling from the 5th floor to the 3rd." That was rough.

If you need someone to talk to, just hit me up.

-Spencer FF/EMT

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