Delivery crew rushes to help man stuck in burning truck
Man rescued from burning vehicle by Good Samaritans
Good Samaritans rushed to pull a man out of a burning car. The men were delivering furniture to a home in Palm Coast Friday when they heard a loud noise. Deputies say a man in a pick-up truck towing a trailer lost control of the vehicle, hitting a concrete wall.
PALM COAST, Fla. - Two Good Samaritans are being credited for their quick actions that may have helped save a man stuck inside a smoking truck.
The men were delivering furniture to a home in Palm Coast Friday when they heard a loud noise.
“It looked pretty bad. A lot of smoke,” said Mitchell Watts.
Watts and his co-worker Kevin Luciano were about to head to their next delivery. They say no one else seemed to be around when the crash happened.
“So I stick my head out the window and immediately I said, ‘You down?’ And I just jumped out the car and started running. Looked left and he was right next to me,” Luciano said.
Flagler deputies say the driver, who was towing a trailer with a bobcat excavator, lost control on Palm Harbor Parkway. They say he hit a box truck and then crashed into a concrete wall.
With a man stuck in the smoking pick up, Watts and Luciano ran back to their delivery truck for a fire extinguisher.
“When I was in school, they teach you the basics. Press the thing and aim it at the fire. I just aimed it at the only hole in the hood. I sprayed it and it went everywhere. It worked,” Luciano said.
Luciano says the driver starting coughing so he also used the extinguisher to break out a window.
“He was crying, to be honest. He wanted to be out of the situation. I wanted him out of the situation myself,” he said.
Once firefighters arrived, they were able to get the man out. Amazingly, officials say he only had minor injuries.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly issuing a statement saying in part, “This situation could have ended much differently without the quick response by these Good Samaritans.”
“I was at work. I saw something happen and I acted on impulse. That’s pretty much it," Luciano said.
“You see this kind of thing. You don’t see it every day. But when you do see it, you should keep in mind that could be you. How would you want people to react,” Watts said.
The pair says even with everything that happened Friday, they were able to finish all of their deliveries.