| Updated: 7/11/2012 5:42 pm |
Published: 7/11/2012 4:14 pm
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Okmulgee County --
An elderly man from Depew is being hailed a hero after he risked his own life to save a car fire victim. It happened last Thursday in Okmulgee County.
Jack Lane was traveling along highway 16 when he noticed another driver lose control and veer off into a ditch. The driver’s car burst into flames.
"When I got up there and was looking around I didn't see anybody getting out or walking around,” says Lane.
About that time another driver stopped and offered to help. With the grass on fire all around them, the two men raced towards the burning car.
"The interior and the seats and everything in the whole car were burning, and we drug him out and we had no more got too far away from the car when the gas tank exploded,” says Lane.
Frantic, the two men kept dragging the driver to safety as the grass continued to burn.
"It's just a heroic act. It's a selfless act between two Americans who came in and saved a life,” says Okmulgee County Undersheriff, Fred McGuire Jr.
Although his feet were badly burned, we’re told the driver is doing okay. Lane wishes he could talk with the other Good Samaritan who helped him.
"After we got everything situated I looked around and he was gone. It took both of us to do it and if it had been another minute or two we would have lost him and probably us too because it was bad,” says Lane.
“It's just unfortunate that we don't know the identity of the second man because he left before emergency crews arrived,” says McGuire.
Lane says 20 years with the Depew Fire Department prepared him for last Thursday.
“The good Lord had His hand on all of us. I look back and it's just something unbelievable,” Lane says.
