A passer-by discovered an accident on N. College Street Monday night, then learned his friend was trapped in the burning car. The fire was so intense that he could only stand by and wait for help to arrive.
“That was the tough part,” he said. “We really couldn’t see the car. We could see the fire. For a long time, it was just the fire. We couldn’t see nothing.”
A passenger in the car was able to escape the burning wreckage and climb out of the steep ditch. It was Gary Hardesty and he told those at the scene that Steven Shamburg was still in the burning car.
“We couldn’t get to the car. It was really burning bad. That was the hard part,” said the passer-by, who said he sometimes sees Shamburg at job sites. “Finally, he flopped out where we could see him. That’s when the policeman showed up.”
Both the passer-by and another man, the first police officer on the scene, agreed to talk about their actions with NewsCow.net only if their names were not used.?They don’t consider themselves heroes, and agreed they did what anybody else would have done despite the danger. More than anything, they don’t want to be singled out from all the other emergency personnel who risked their safety to save the 45-year -old house painter.
The Winfield Police officer was at Ninth and Mound streets when he got the call. “When I pulled up there, the car was already on fire. I ran up to the car with a fire extinguisher. (Shamburg) was already out of the car, pinned between the car and a tree. He was on top of the car and that’s why he was on fire.”
Training and 16 years in law enforcement must have kicked in, the officer said. He admits he was scared, and briefly wondered if the car might blow up before he could help Shamburg.
“I had to do what I had to do. I couldn’t give up. I had to keep trying no matter what,” the officer said. “I put him out with a fire extinguisher. I started to pull him off (the car) and the skin came off his arms.
“Finally, I got the gentleman to take hold of my hand just hard enough I could pull him far enough from the car so we could pull him on out. All I remember is that he was in pain, excruciating pain. By that time people were showing up to help,” he said.
Kansas Highway Trooper Bob LaVelle jumped a fence to get another fire extinguisher down to the wreckage. Then the ambulance arrived, followed closely by the fire department. Shamburg’s friend, the passer-by, remembers two women – paramedics – down in the ditch trying to help the burned man.
“The fire people deserve credit. Bob LeVelle, he came down while the car was burning. He was five feet away from the car, waiting for the paramedics to get there,” the officer said. “With that incline, it was just hard to get things moving.
“We just put him on a spine board. EMS and the trooper – between the four of us we got him up.”
The passer-by helped to free Shamburg as well. He remembers the heat but said there wasn’t time to be afraid. He said he never worried about the car exploding.
What needs to be stressed, the friend said, is the actions taken by police, fire and EMS. They were just doing their jobs, but seldom get the credit they deserve, he said.
“They were very heroic.”
