Driver rescued from flaming wreck
Published: June 5, 2007
Battalion Chief Al Sardina never dreamed his week would start off by pulling a man from a flaming car wreck.
It was another sunny, routine day.
He had just left the Englewood fire station on State Road 776 at 9 a.m., heading toward Rotonda on his regular morning rounds.
Idling at the stoplight at Oriole Boulevard, out front of the Wal-Mart Supercenter, Sardina heard something. It wasn’t particularly loud, but it was something unusual.
“When I looked up, I saw this van coming to a stop on a roll,” he said.
Sardina jumped from his vehicle, and with the help of others pulled the driver from the burning, smoking van.
Hubert Willis, 71, of Rotonda West was airlifted to the Tampa General Hospital Burn Unit with severe burns and unspecified injuries. He was listed in critical condition Monday afternoon.
The Florida Highway Patrol said Madeleine Gary, 85, of Englewood was driving a red Toyota Camry east on S.R. 776 at 9 a.m. when she collided with a Chevrolet Travel Wagon van driven by Willis, who was turning left at the light into Wal-Mart.
FHP Sgt. Herbert Head said Willis “violated her right of way” at the intersection. The car was destroyed, but Gary was not injured.
Gary’s Toyota struck the rear of the van — a camper — and sent it rolling onto Oriole Boulevard, where it ended up on its side.
Right away, Sardina and others were there.
“I got out to check on (Willis). He signaled to me he was all right. I went to check on the lady in the other vehicle, and when I looked back there was smoke coming out of the van,” Sardina said.
Willis was trapped in the van, which was filling up quickly with black fumes.
With Sardina at the scene was Charlotte County Sheriff’s Detective Robert Conant, who was on his way to the Sheriff’s Office on nearby San Casa Drive, and Deputy Dan Holiman.
Sardina began hitting the windshield with his hand, then grabbed a tire iron handed to him by a motorist, Donna Little of Gardens of Gulf Cove.
Conant also bashed away with his nightstick.
“We couldn’t see in the van because of all the smoke,” Conant said.
“I was yelling at the guy inside to come to the windshield and give me his hand, then I saw a hand come out.”
Conant grabbed for the badly burned hand, then pulled Willis by his suspenders. When those broke, Conant said, he and Sardina grabbed Willis by the pants and pulled him out.
But Willis was overcome with the smoke.
“When we pulled him out, he wasn’t breathing,” Sardina said.
Another motorist tossed Sardina a breathing mask used for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Sardina gave Willis a couple of breaths, then held his airway open until the ambulance arrived.
“He inhaled a lot of smoke,” Sardina said. “He had burns all over his face. His eyes looked burned, too.”
A helicopter was brought in from Lee County and Willis was airlifted just before 10 a.m. from the Wal-Mart parking lot to the Tampa hospital.
Gary’s daughter and son-in-law, Anna and Eric Swain of Port Charlotte, also arrived on the scene to assist her.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Gary said.
“We’re praying the man is all right and we’re just grateful Madeleine’s OK,” Eric Swain said.
Sardina, his hand bandaged and shirt bloodied from bashing the windshield, said at the scene it was fortunate so many knowledgeable people had been on the spot.
“It was just one of those things that happen. It’s not too often you’re just on the scene like that,” said Sardina, who has been with the fire department for 21 years.
Conant agreed.
“It was just dumb luck that we were in the area at the right time to be there when we could. Much longer, and it wouldn’t have been a good scenario.”
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