Here's a scene for you. I'm at my brother's apartment after the rehearsal dinner the night before his wedding, and we're about to go out. It's about 8:30 or 9:00. My pager goes off. His fiancee says to her bridesmaids, "get out of his way!" Car fire. Nah - I'll skip this one. With entrapments. No, gotta go.
Jump in the car, doing 90mph down US 20 in Portage, IN (speed limit 45). Had a scanner in the car, heard the police asking, "WHERE'S FIRE???" Heard screams in the background. Come to the curve where I can see the traffic light at US 20 and SR 149 in Burns Harbor, where I'm a volunteer firefighter. Flames about 20' higher than the traffic light. Not good. Had to detour to get to the fire station because of the wreck's location.
Jump into my gear, tell one of the newbs to start the engine while I do. Drive to the scene, heart racing. Work with others at putting out the fire. Then realize that this is a three car crash. A Dodge Dakota was sitting at the light. A Chevy S-10 was behind it. The 79 Monte Carlo hit the S-10 at a calculated 79.5 mph. Witnesses said there was no sign of the Monte slowing. The S-10 folded in half, literally. A volunteer fireman from another department saw the crash and broke his arm breaking out the window to pull that driver out. She was subsequently charged with DUI. Wrong place, wrong time.
We took turns for hours, rotating between cutting up cars and holding up tarps so that the HUNDREDS of onlookers, standing all over the perimeter of this now-closed intersection of two four-lane highways, so they wouldn't see what they thought they wanted to see, but we knew that deep down they really didn't.
The guy driving the Monte Carlo was up under the dash, having not been wearing his seatbelt. He burned to death. We cut the car up, rolled the dash, and had to be careful not to damage the body while extricating him from the wreckage. He was not drunk or high. But he had a siezure history. That was the best guess.
The S-10 had a 21 yo male and a 30 yo female in it. Both burned to death. They felt it. They screamed. We used two wreckers, one at each end, with cables attached, to winch against each other and unfold the truck. We cut the top off, rolled the dash, popped the doors off, and again, had to be sure not to cause further injury to these bodies.
Did I mention that because of the nature of the accident, we had to wait for the coroner's arrival before we could commence these activities?
I will spare you the description of the bodies. Just trust me on that. But have you ever smelled the aroma of burning human flesh? Not the kind of burn you get from touching a hot stove, but the kind that you get when that flesh is really burning. This crash was about 20 years ago, and I still smell it now and then.
We opened the intersection some time around 2am. I got home after we washed the apparatus sometime after 3. I had to be at the church by 11, in my tux. I was not in the mood for a wedding, to be sure. Just a few hours before, I had done something so horrific, something so terrible, that no human being should have to do it. But someone has to.
Given the choice, I would much prefer to be power-washing.
Next time that ambulance or that fire truck come up behind you, please don't hesitate to pull all the way over, and stop for them.
