Car accidents happen all the time in the United States. In 2013, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 5,687,000 accidents.
Some accidents are minor, some are deadly and some have heroic endings where fellow drivers pitch-in to help.
For a resident of Granbury, with some special skills, that's how one serious crash ended on Thursday, with one man helping, with others, to save another.
It was at about 9 a.m. on Thursday when Shane Harmon was driving on Highway 171 on the outskirts of Cresson in Hood County. As he neared the railroad tracks, he'll never forget what he saw one car in front of him.
"Once I saw that car coming, it was like everything was in slow motion at that point," Harmon said. "He was in our lane before we knew it and Mr. Snyder, he was in the car in front of me, he had no time to react."
Neither did Harmon, who hit Snyder's SUV in front of him and then spun into a nearby ditch.
"It disoriented me at that point," Harmon said. "Once I got out of the truck, I knew I had to over to the (Chevy) Blazer. It took the brunt of the hit."
A head-on collision involving multiple cars. It's something Harmon actually sees pretty regularly for work, as he is a Fort Worth firefighter based at station two downtown.
"It's totally different," Harmon said of the off-duty wreck. "It's the first time I've run up on one that bad not on-duty."
But those on-duty skills kicked in as Harmon tried to free the driver from the damaged truck. They tried crowbars to pry the door open when another problem arose nearby.
"I tried to get the door open and at that point the engine compartment had caught on fire," he said. "And I've seen it numerous times, it doesn't take long for the whole car to become engulfed."
The driver's door wasn't budging without firefighting tools and they couldn't get the driver out of the passenger door because the steering wheel was pushing into his chest and his leg was trapped under the dashboard. All the while the engine fire was continuing to rage.
"It came to a point where I knew that we weren’t getting it open, and so "Plan B" came about to get the fire put out," Harmon said.
He asked truck drivers for fire extinguishers. Armed with two small extinguishers, Harmon and another man removed the remaining part of the hood to access the fire better.
"I ended up burning my arm, about 10 to 12 inches up," Harmon said.
He didn't realize he suffered second degree burns until well after he put down the fire and the Cresson Fire Department got the victim out and airlifted to a local hospital.
It's an accident that could have been far worse, if not for the off-duty firefighter who happened to be involved in the wreck.
"I do believe I was, maybe, there for a reason," he said.
But Harmon says he's not a hero, it's simply the job he does everyday and he was just a citizen helping another.
"It was all a group effort, it wasn't just me," he said.
The driver was in critical condition according to Harmon, but the hope is that he will recover.
Harmon may miss a few shifts with the second degree burns on his arm.
