As emergency crews raced to a collision near Highway 59 and the North Perimeter Highway, trucker Raymond Nolette faced a terrifying ordeal on-scene - one young woman engulfed in flames, and another screaming inside a burning van.
VIDEO: Five injured in crash
"This was unbelievable. You only see this in the movies," said Nolette, his voice still quavering hours later.
Truck driver Ray Nolette rescued a woman caught in a burning vehicle after a crash Monday on Highway 59 at the Perimeter Highway.
"When you see somebody engulfed in flames like that...I was all shook up there for a while."
Nolette, a driver for Steinbach-based Dawson Road Transfer, was going east on the North Perimeter when he witnessed a frightening chain of events.
Police say five people were sent to hospital after a collision between a grey Chevrolet van and a white Mazda hatchback, which occurred just before 10 a.m. and snarled traffic just south of the spot where the Perimeter crosses above Hwy. 59 at an overpass.
Police have not said the nature of the injuries, but Nolette said the victims appeared to not be seriously hurt.
The collision actually occurred at a level intersection about 20 metres south of the overpass. The intersection is controlled by traffic lights.
According to a captain with the East St. Paul Fire Department, the Mazda was headed east off a Perimeter Hwy. exit ramp when it appeared to have tried to cross the intersection and collided with the northbound van. Capt. Jernej Anderlic said the van careened into a light standard in the northeast corner and caught fire.
Nolette said after the van burst into flames, two young women climbed out of the passenger side, followed by a third. But instead of running to safety, the third woman fell into a fire burning near the van from what Nolette thought was spilled gas. He immediately ran to the woman, whipped off his jacket and wrapped it around her, beating the flames away, he said.
"Finally I got the fire out, and I turn around and I see there's another girl standing in the van, just screaming because of the fire," he said.
Nolette said he coaxed the woman to jump from the van, after which the group of women began to cry and hug.
Stunned by the event, Nolette said he suddenly realized his rig was blocking traffic and went to move it, driving away before police arrived.
"I was just so much in shock I just left," he said, adding he reported the incident to his company.
Nolette said he only saw four women in the van, but Anderlic said five people from the van were taken to Concordia Hospital and the Health Sciences Centre. The driver of the Mazda, its lone occupant, was treated at the scene.
His company thinks he's a hero, but Nolette insists otherwise - "I just did what comes naturally," he said. The driver, who has adult children, is relieved the situation wasn't any worse.
"This was horrible, and I was sure glad they were alright," he said.
lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca
joe.paraskevas@freepress.mb.ca
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