LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — It was a terrible accident that left a family fighting to survive, and two children trapped inside the back of a burning car.
A Good Samaritan, AJ Slater, helped the family save one of the children, but sadly, the other child did not survive.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the crash happened in a Lakeland neighborhood at the intersection of Broadway Street and Lake Parker Drive East at around 5 p.m. on Nov. 7.
A father, 30-year-old Kody Wills, and his two young children were inside the white Kia sedan when it caught fire after it collided with a tree. The tree was in a wooded area adjacent to the roadway.
Slater was also critically injured during the rescue and is finally leaving the hospital to continue his own recovery from the severe burns along his arms, ears, and legs.
He already had to undergo extensive surgery for a skin graft replacement on his left thigh.
However, Slater says he’s coping with insurmountable physical and emotional pain.
He is grateful he was able to help save the 3-year-old boy, Walker, but devastated that his 5-year-old sister, JoLynn, did not survive.
On Monday, AJ Slater was released from Tampa General Hospital and took his first footsteps since he rescued Walker from the fiery crash.
He remembers the terrifying moment when he saw the car fully engulfed in flames and heard the father’s desperate cries for help.
“The dad was yelling ‘help me’,” said Slater. “He said, ‘Help save my kids’. I ran over there, and that’s when I saw him lying on the ground. All the doors were closed on the vehicle. I opened up the back door, and all I could see was black smoke and two little knees, so I just grabbed the body.”
Without hesitation, Slater reached into the plume of smoke to pull the boy from the flames.
“I realized Walker was alive, so I picked him up and I held him,” said Slater. “I didn’t know if he was dying or not. So, I just tried to just keep him alive, shake his body, talk to him, rub and squeeze his hands. He wouldn’t speak.”
Slater reached back into the burning car to rescue the 5-year-old girl who was strapped in a car seat, but she did not survive the intensity of the flames.
“I tried to get it unlocked and I couldn’t get it to unlock and at that time fire was just all over us burning us up,” Slater said. “She was crying. I was talking to her and trying to calm her down.”
Slater says the safety belt of the car seat wouldn’t unlatch, but the flames continue to spread quickly.
“The smoke was so thick,” said Slater. “I couldn’t see her face. I know she was moving and crying. She was stuck in a car seat.”
The mother of the children, Logan Deines, was not involved in the crash and is still trying to process the loss of her young daughter.
Deines has spent the last ten days at Tampa General Hospital alongside her 3-year-old son as he continues to heal. Walker was finally discharged on Monday.
“I have no option but to be strong at this point,” said Deines. “I have my son that I have to continue raising most likely alone from here on out and I have a daughter that deserves the world. Her life was taken from her at such a young age.”
She says her family has now formed a lifelong bond with Slater after his valiant effort to risk his own life to save her children.
“Someone who has never really been around kids jumps into action to save kids he doesn’t even know,” said Deines. “That’s a lot of bravery. It’s definitely something that should be respected for the rest of his life.”
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Source: wfla
