09/17/2011 – MVC with Fire – “B” Shift

Incident # 11-05069 – A single car MVC has left one man in critical condition. Fire-Rescue responded to a single car MVC at the intersection of Augusta Highway and Sidneys Road, commonly referred to as Gruber’s Crossroads, Saturday evening 17-September at 21:20. Witnesses reported the vehicle was traveling northbound on Sidneys Road at a high rate of speed, when it failed to stop at Augusta Highway. The fast moving car narrowly missed a vehicle on Augusta Highway driven by Morgan Blocker.  Ms. Blocker heard the car crash, but could not see the vehicle in the dark. She drove home a short distance to get her father, Pastor Johnny Byrd, who quickly returned to the scene with Ms. Blocker. When they arrived back at the accident site, the vehicle was on fire. Pastor Byrd searched around the car and discovered a man was still inside and unconscious. The car had run head-on into a small oak tree, causing heavy damage. The car broke the tree in half, knocked down a metal car port and had over-turned. It was lying on driver’s side mixed in the debris of the car port and the downed tree.

The man was lying inside the vehicle as the fire continued to grown. Pastor Byrd sent Ms. Blocker back to the road to flag down some help. Mr. Mark Dawson stopped to assist. He located a baseball bat near the wrecked car, which had actually been thrown from the car. After over ten attempts, he was able to break the sun roof window to gain access to the interior. The fire was now intense and the interior of the car was filled with smoke and flames. Pastor Byrd and Mr. Dawson reached into the car and pulled the victim from the burning vehicle through the sun roof. His clothes were on fire, but they were able to drag the man about 20 feet from the burning car. They extinguished his burning clothing, most of which had burned away. Pastor Byrd received second degree burns to both of his hands during the incident.

Fire-Rescue units arrived about 10 minutes later to this remote rural area. Firefighters found the car fully involved and deployed one 1-3/4 handline to extinguish the fire. The line was positioned to keep the flames away from other crewmembers who were treating the injured man.

A medical helicopter was requested to fly the critically injured man, however none in the area could lift off due to poor weather. A helicopter from Augusta Georgia responded. Firefighter-Paramedics treated the man at the scene and rapidly transported him to Colleton Medical Center. The Augusta helicopter had to abort the flight due to poor weather conditions. The critically injured man was treated and stabilized at Colleton Medical Center and then quickly transferred by Medic 26 to the Trauma Center at MUSC. He was burned on over 50% of his body and received multiple traumatic injuries.

Firefighter-Paramedics treated Pastor Byrd at the scene for his burns and encouraged him to go the hospital, but he refused ambulance transportation to CMC. The actions of these three people, Ms. Blocker, Pastor Byrd and Mr. Dawson definitely saved this man’s life.