Renita Crawford has details of an unusual way of extinguishing a fire. Rescue veterans say they've never heard of it until now.It was a violent, fiery crash, and minutes after it happened, people immediately stopped to see how they could help the men trapped inside.
It was too late for the driver. Jerry Littleton was killed when his pickup caught fire after overturning and hitting a tree. The passenger, his cousin, 18-year-old Mitchell Hendrix, was still alive, but fire was racing through the vehicle.
James Burdette, and two other workers, were heading in for the day after making a service call. The septic company workers saw the wreck and turned around to help.
Burdett: "We heard the man in there screaming, so we waited for the police to get there, and police showed up. We asked permission to put the fire out, with the pump truck, and they said 'Go ahead, and do that' so we backed the pump truck over there, and put the fire out."
As unconventional as it was, the men doused the fire with 1500 gallons of raw sewage for about ten minutes. It's illegal to release sewage on the ground, but the men say there was no other way to save him.
Firefighters had not yet arrived on the scene.
Hendrix was pulled from the wreckage, and airlifted to a Savannah hospital. Currently, he is in critical, but stable, condition at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta.
Hendrix is still in the Burn Center this morning, and will likely be there for several more weeks. The raw sewage poses a major infection risk to Hendrix, due to his burns. The rescuers on scene were checked out at the hospital for similar reasons.
Video after the jump.
Video & Source: Wjbf
Tags: Fire | Accident | Sewage | Saved
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