Driver pulled from fiery crash in SR Twp.
Slippery Rock firefighters relied on their training to save a woman from a fiery crash Tuesday morning.
“We just worked like clockwork,” said Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Chief Ryan Hanchosky. “We knew what each other were thinking.”
Butler County 911 dispatchers sent emergency crews at 1:35 a.m. to the 500 block of Centreville Pike in Slippery Rock Township.
According to Hanchosky, when he and his crew of four arrived, they found a car overturned, wrapped around a telephone pole and on fire.
Hanchosky said his men reacted quickly, with the group splitting evenly.
Two firefighters rolled out an attack line to tackle the fire, emerging from beneath the four-door sedan's hood. The other firefighters worked to extract the driver from the crumpled and upturned vehicle.
He said both the extraction and fire concluded at the same time, about 10 minutes after they arrived.
“It felt like a lifetime,” Hanchosky said.
According to Hanchosky, the woman was in critical but stable condition. He said firefighters had some interactions with her while they worked and afterward.
“The occupant was alert, but she was trapped,” Hanchosky said. “She was talking to us as she was put in the ambulance.”
The woman was the only person in the car, and she was taken first by ambulance to Grove City Medical Center. Hanchosky said she was later taken to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
“Helicopters were unable to fly (to the Slippery Rock scene) due to weather,” Hanchosky said.
Hanchosky said he was thankful for his fellow firefighters as well as the state police at the scene who assisted them. He said the culmination of everyone's effort and some quick thinking likely saved the woman's life.
“I have never seen such an incident,” he said. “We had a game plan, and we went to work.”
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. State police will likely release the results of their investigation at a later date.
