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| 7/16/2009 10:25:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| THE WRECKAGE from a Buick sedan is almost unrecognizable following a fatal T-bone collision at Missouri Route 13 and Russell Street in Warrensburg that leaves a city resident dead and two injured. AMANDA LUBINSKI/Star-Journal photo |
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KFC WORKERS FIRST ON SCENE
Jack Miles
Editor
Warrensburg - A fire extinguisher may have saved lives in the aftermath of the deadly accident about 11 a.m. Wednesday at Missouri Route 13 and Russell Avenue.
KFC manager Scott Faubion, 41, and employee Kirk Wiggins, 27, said they rushed out to help.
At the intersection, a 2005 Chevy pickup truck driven southbound on Route 13 by James P. Trent, Higginsville, had T-boned a white Buick sedan driven by Tracy A. McCain, 47, Warrensburg. Tracy, driving north on Route 13, turned left to get onto Russell Avenue when the truck struck, pushing McCain's vehicle into a traffic light, knocking over the concrete-base and light, and tearing the car in two.
"We were the first on the scene. ... I looked under the Buick and there was nothing I could do for him," Faubion said.
Faubion said he and others then focused on the truck containing Trent and daughter Brooke E. Trent, 16. Before getting into the truck, Faubion said, he noticed fluid and heard shouting.
"I saw oil spewing out from the bottom of the truck and it was going around my feet and that's when the girls were yelling, 'There's a fire under the truck!' ... Obviously, you've got to get these people out of here," Faubion said.
Wiggins, a former Holden volunteer firefighter, said a KFC employee handed him a fire extinguisher that he used in the area of the oil pan and engine.
"As soon as I sprayed down there at the base of the fire, a big old cloud of smoke just came up out of nowhere. ... It wasn't like a spark. It was literally burning," Wiggins said. "It's hard to say what would have burned like that. I didn't smell gas."
With fear of the fire and concern for the driver pushing him, Faubion said he went in on the passenger side to try to free the driver.
"I ripped his console out just trying to find a way to get him out, but I couldn't," he said.
The impact had smashed the driver side of the truck, compressing the cab into McCain.
"His legs were trapped. They were kind of bent upward toward his chest and there was no way of just getting him out, because the door was just jammed shut. Me and a couple of guys just tried to lean the seat back, and we couldn't get to the controls," Faubion said.
The experience, he said, frustrated him.
"There was nothing we could," Faubion said, but wait for emergency personnel.
Wiggins said he felt good about what he accomplished with the extinguisher, perhaps saving lives.
"My first instinct was to get this fire put out before we lose anybody else," he said.
But, Wiggins said, the sight haunts him.
"I really haven't been able to sleep. ... After seeing something like that, it messes with you, it really does," he said.
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Reader Comments
Posted: Friday, July 17, 2009
Article comment by:
Chrissie Mays
My heart hurts for all the familys involved and our prayers are with you all.May God help you all in this hard time .GOD BLESS
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