Surgeon: Strangers saved life of boy trapped in burning SUV

[RamboLiberal]

The off-duty firefighters who rushed into a burning SUV and cut a 4-year-old boy out of the seatbelt saved his life, the boy's doctor said during a press conference Tuesday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The depth of the boy's burns "indicates to me this was a very hot fire, and he was in close contact with it," pediatric surgeon David Gourlay said. "These firefighters were clearly heroic and saved D.J.'s life."

D.J. Harper is in serious but stable condition with second- and third-degree burns on his scalp, face, back and arms, Gourlay said.

But the little boy is expected to make a full recovery thanks to a group of strangers that came to his rescue. The onlookers helped a woman and girl from their fiery SUV before off-duty firefighters cut a seatbelt to free D.J. in a harrowing rescue attempt a neighbor captured on video.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/21/milwaukee.rescue/index.html

The video: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/21/milwaukee.rescue/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Incredible story of a lot of people making a difference saving this boy from the off-duty firefighters who risked their lives and suffered burns to their arms to the off-duty cop with fire extinguishers to the neighbors who broke out the windshield and one who gave a knife to the firefighters to the woman with the garden hose to cool off the boy's burns.

Hope the little guy will be ok as well as these two firefighters.

[smalll]

1. Canyonero!

Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!

[flvegan]

2. Just goes to prove that heroes are never off-duty.

Nice job, all.

[blaze]

3. Damn

That's an amazing story.

Kinda helps me continue to believe in human beings.

[Gwendolyn]

4. Damn! Those guys were incredible. The video is unbelievable.

That little boy is so lucky those brave people all converged on that spot at that moment in time.

[SidneyCarton]

5. A salute to those who did something when it mattered.

:patriot:

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

[BlooInBloo]

6. That was fucking awesome.

[RamboLiberal]

7. And one of the people who called 911 gets

"All emergency operators are busy assisting other callers" and then when she gets the fire department and asks what took them so long to answer the call she gets "there's only so many operators".

http://www.wisn.com/video/20135630/index.html

Good thing those neighbors jumped in to the situation to save these people.

[Gwendolyn]

8. That's because so many others were already calling about the same situation.

At the end of the broadcast, the announcer says the fire department had already been dispatched while this woman was on the phone.

[Wednesdays]

9. K&R

:kick:

[MadMaddie]

10. All of the folks are hero's

This is the America I love (of course it can happen anywhere in the world).

May all of them rest easy knowing that they helped that family.