The trustees of Hanover Township in Butler County presented a certificate of appreciation last week to a Miami University EMS coordinator for pulling a man from a burning car.
Howard "Buddy" Jackson, along with three others, were presented the award Oct. 16 in Hanover for their part in lifting a man out of a car in an accident that could have killed him. Jackson said he was on his way home Aug. 21 from a dispatch shift at the Miami University Police Department (MUPD) when he saw a pickup truck overturned on State Route 177, about 10 minutes away from Oxford.
"(I) stopped to see what was wrong and what I could do to help," Jackson said. "I was off duty, but I was also doing my job."
Besides his work with the MUPD communication center, Jackson is also a state certified paramedic. He said that a sheriff deputy had already responded to the accident, along with two other men on their way home, and had stopped at the one-car wreck. Brian Gleason, a city of Fairfield fire fighter and paramedic, was another who lifted the man trapped in the car out of the fire, along with Butler County Sheriff deputy Morgan Dallman. Jackson said the conditions of the wreck were very serious, though he did not comment on the cause of the accident.
"It happened so quickly," Jackson said. "We moved the truck in some way to get him out of it. He wasn't on fire, but the heat was burning him. The truck was a total loss. It was engulfed."
Oxford Deputy Fire Chief Fred Stitsinger arrived on scene with an engine from Hanover Fire Department to find smoke for half a mile and 20-foot flames coming from the truck. When Stitsinger arrived, he also found the burned man, whose name was not mentioned by Jackson or Stitsinger, lying in the road along with the upside down truck that appeared to have rolled three times.
"He looked disorientated and confused," Stitsinger said. "If he still would have been in the car, he would have been dead. The car was
completely engulfed."
Stitsinger said that about 15 emergency workers, including the original four, were on the scene of the accident by the time it was cleaned up. The man who was pulled from the car was taken to the hospital with minor burns and bruises, Stitsinger said.
Stitsinger is also a trustee for the Township of Hanover and he said that the town wanted to recognize the response of Jackson and the other three men before the rest of the emergency squads arrived.
"(It doesn't) happen every day that somebody saves a life," Stitsinger said. "I'm happy that it was a very positive outcome of a bad situation."
As Stitsman is both a trustee in Hanover and an emergency response worker, he said the presence of Jackson and the others was crucial in the outcome of the accident.
"That's a luxury," Stitsman said. "That guy had a guardian angel out there."
