Firefighters from Toombs County were able to save a semi-truck driver from a fire that was about to start when his truck caught fire after an accident on Georgia State Route 130. In the late afternoon of September 9, an 18-wheeler went off the road, flipped over, and ended up in a ditch next to the road. The driver of the car, who hasn’t been named by police, was stuck in the wreckage and had to be freed by the Toombs County Fire Department using “the jaws of life” and other tools. Captain Robert Tillman of the Toombs County and Vidalia Fire Departments praised how well law enforcement and emergency services agencies in the area work together. “When the call came in, I told Firefighter Ray Mc-Donald, who lives in Petross, to go to the scene right away and take a look at what was going on,” Tillman said. “Firefighter McDonald knew right away that the driver was stuck under the truck and that we would need a lot of help.”
Tillman said that when he heard this, he called Lieutenant Jonas Blackwell and asked him to send several fire trucks and tools to the scene. When Tillman got there, he saw how hard the rescue would be. The truck still had power going to it, but it was leaking diesel fuel, and the frame was upside down and in a weighted position that made it hard to remove. “Right away, we put a guy on the ground in full gear so that if anything went wrong, he could respond and put out the fire,” Tillman said. “As I looked at the wreckage, I realized I needed Cooper’s Towing, which was close by.” Tillman says that he realized a tow truck was needed for the rescue because he had seen the TV show “Heavy Rescue,” in which rescue workers used wreckers to lift things. The firefighters called Cooper’s for help and kept checking on the person who was stuck until the truck arrived. When the tow truck got there, it lifted the truck slowly so that firefighters and other helpers could make small changes to make sure the victim was safe, like cutting the hood off the truck to keep the driver from getting hurt more. “We lifted it just enough so we could go in and get the victim, but as soon as we did, the truck caught on fire,” Tillman said. “One group of firefighters put out the fire, while another tried to get the person out. I could only think, “I’m not going to let my patient die and burn to death.” The group pulled the man to safety by working together. Tillman praised the team’s work. “They never flinched or ran away when things got hard. He said, “They stayed and did what they had been taught to do.”
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