When Jadin Brown and Cameron Whiddon saw a driver trapped inside a burning vehicle near midtown Toronto on Thursday night, the two 20-year-olds jumped into action to free him.
The two Royal Military College students recounted the events following the single-vehicle crash at around 10:30 p.m., near Moore and Bayview avenues to CTV News Toronto on Friday.
“That’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re mandatory first responders. We have the training,” Brown said. “Why wouldn’t we help?”
Toronto police said reports from the scene indicate that a Black Ford Mustang involved caught fire after hitting a concrete barrier in the parking lot of a grocery store.
The driver became trapped inside and was later extricated by firefighters, police added.
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But before emergency services arrived, Brown and Whiddon, among several bystanders, rushed to the scene to help.
Whiddon and Brown were at home when they heard a car speeding by and then a “bang.” They arrived to see the car in flames.
Brown asked Whiddon to break the car’s windows to let the smoke out so he could get inside and pull out the driver.
“I checked that he was alive, but I couldn’t extricate him because he was pinned. I tried my best to get him out and get him away from the car that could have exploded,” Brown said.
He described that the driver was folded forward with the steering wheel in his chest.
Brown even tried to grab him under his armpits but was unsuccessful in extricating him.
They then focused their efforts on extinguishing the fire to prevent the car from exploding and telling the crowd that had formed to back away in case of an explosion.
Brown said the flames were about two feet high and were concentrated on the engine.
“It didn’t seem like it was spreading, it just seemed like it was shooting out. But the whole front was just crumpled,” he told CTV News Toronto.
They used fire extinguishers that others had brought to the scene. By the time emergency responders had arrived, the fire had been put out.
Whiddon shared that fire crews had to remove the roof of the car to get the driver out.
“The police did tell us that he was talking in the ambulance, so I really hope the guy is OK,” he said.
The driver was initially taken to the hospital in critical condition. In a subsequent update, police said the driver’s injuries were not life-threatening and that he was expected to survive.
Meanwhile, Whiddon and Brown were also taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Whiddon was also treated for a cut to the finger he sustained breaking the car’s windows.
“It’s what we’re meant to do, right? It’s serve and protect. Service over self. Put yourself in the way of harm for others,” Brown said.
Whiddon added, “I would want someone to come and help me. So, I think that’s what we did, and I think we did an OK job.”
The cause of the crash is under investigation.