This story was originally posted on another blog on 1-August-2015. And now it's here.
It happened in the pre-dawn hours of a
southern Saturday morning. Corporal Adam Willis, a 10 year veteran of
the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina police department, was out on
patrol. He got a call about a car engulfed in flames near Vickery's
Bar and Grill on Shrimp Boat Lane and immediately accelerated in that
direction to help.
As Willis pulled into the parking lot
his dash cam captured the burning car, the whole front end covered in
fire. He came to a stop, grabbed his fire extinguisher, and ran
toward the burning vehicle. He later said he was thinking "please
be alive, don't be dead." In a subsequent interview with Fox and
Friends Willis said he didn't really think about the danger, he just
focused on the job.
As Willis approached the car the flames
were so intense that he couldn't see inside. He used the extinguisher
to drive the fire back and then saw an arm gripping the steering
wheel. Willis later explained to an interviewer: "When you're in
those kind of situations, there's really not much time to have
emotion or to think about too much. Like I said, I went in there with
a mindset that I was going to make sure there was no one in the
vehicle. Once there was somebody, my mindset then went to: I gotta
get him out of the vehicle."
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The 27 year old in the driver's seat
was unconscious. Fortunately, the door was ajar so Willis pulled it
open and grabbed the occupant by the arm yelling "Get out!, Get
out!" The man regained consciousness and, with Willis's help,
got out of the car and ran for safety.
When firefighters arrived they told
Willis that if he had been just one or two minutes later the story
might have had a very different – and tragic – end.
The young man was heavily intoxicated
and was taken to a hospital as a precaution. He was released an hour
later.
Willis summed up what he did in a later
interview: "There was nothing else going through my mind. Our
training... you have these critical incidents that require just a
bunch of adrenaline. It's more of a reactionary thing and that's
exactly what I went through," and "That's part of loving
the job – is being able to help people."
Corporal Adam Willis did a great job.
He saw a dangerous situation and ran straight into it. When he
realized someone needed help, he was there to provide that help. Adam
Willis is one of our good cops.
For more information – and for video
of the fiery rescue - click on the links below.
Copyright © 2016 by Joseph Wayne Gadway
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