Article from The Pocono Record

Plow driver pulls man from burning car



By MICHAEL SADOWSKI
Pocono Record Writer
On the road ahead, he saw flames.
He drove closer, and flames grew larger. From his Pennsylvania Department of Transportation plow truck, even with the falling snow, Greg Dorn could easily make out the disabled car riddled with fire.
Quick-thinking time -- and Thomas O'Reilly, 36, of Kunkletown, is alive because of it. Dorn pulled the man from the burning car.
"Looking back, it was scary," Dorn, a volunteer firefighter, said about running to the flaming car. "Now I'm thinking about all the what-ifs. What if I didn't get the fire knocked down enough, what if I hurt myself and all of those. But I'm glad I did and I was able to save a man's life."
It was early Saturday morning and Dorn was plowing the same stretch of Route 715 in Chestnuthill Township he had plowed other times in his three years at PennDOT.
On his way toward Saylorsburg around 3:45 a.m., he saw the burning car. State police would later conclude that O'Reilly's car slid off the icy road when he couldn't negotiate a curve, hit a tree and rolled the car onto its side. The car then burst into flames.
It has not been determined how long O'Reilly was in the fiery car before Dorn drove by in his truck.
Dorn quickly pulled the truck over when he saw the flames, and called to the Monroe County emergency dispatch to bring his fire department, the West End Fire Company, to the scene.
But there was a chance it could be too late by the time his fellow firefighters arrived. So Dorn grabbed a fire extinguisher from his truck and tried to knock down the flames while calling to the car to see if anyone was inside.
At first, he heard nothing. But after calling a few times, he heard someone asking for help and trying to get out.
"He was kicking the windshield, but he just wasn't getting anywhere with it," Dorn, 32, of Effort, said. "So I told him to stop his kicking, and I started. I was able to get it kicked in, then I peeled away the glass."
Dorn was able to reach in and rescue O'Reilly from the car, pulling him back near the road and safety. Just as he reached the road, emergency officials arrived on the scene and extinguished the flames.
O'Reilly was flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital, where he is listed in stable condition.
As for Dorn, he suffered some minor cuts on his hands, but is fine, his selflessness and awareness probably saving a man's life.
"Even after 15 years as a firefighter, all the training in the world couldn't have prepared me for what happened," Dorn said. "I'm just glad I was able to help someone."