JUST ANOTHER DAY ON THE JOB

TROOPER PULLS WOMAN

FROM BURNING CAR

South Amherst – Trooper Shawn Klein of the Ohio State Highway Patrol was on routine patrol Saturday afternoon traveling through South Amherst on Route 58.

Grant Krieg was working at his Ice Cream Stand (Krieg’s Frozen Custard) on Route 113, just west of Route 58, Saturday afternoon when he spotted Klein’s patrol car with the lights activated. Krieg, who was outside of his stand taking out trash, moved to the front of the stand to see what was going on – what he saw, he says, was nothing short of heroic. “I saw the Trooper pull across the intersection and turn on his lights, then he spun around and pulled behind this car that was parked at the light.”

Trooper Klein said that as he was crossing the intersection he could see that some of the cars traveling in the opposite direction were trying to signal to him. “It was then that I looked over and saw a maroon colored Impala parked at the traffic light and sure enough all underneath the engine compartment on the asphalt was on fire. The lady was still inside of the vehicle and it appeared that she was unaware of the fire and at that point I wasn’t sure if anything was wrong with her or not.”

It was then that Krieg said Klein jumped into action. “He got out of his car and ran to her door and just pulled it open then reached in and grabbed her and got her out of there. At this point I am standing 300 or so yards away and I can see the entire underneath of the car and the engine on fire, I didn’t know if it was going to blow up or not so I stayed a good distance away and near the building.”

Krieg said that Klein moved the woman, Faira Corbett of South Amherst, back to the patrol car and out of harms way.

Klein said that when he grabbed the Corbett’s arm he told her, “hey, your car is on fire” – he said Corbett was both surprised to see him and to find out the news about the fire.

The South Amherst Fire Department was called to extinguish the blaze and to secure the car for towing.

Klein said that the cause of the fire is still unknown; he did say that Corbett’s husband had been working on the car recently.

Krieg said he believes what Klein did was both heroic and very brave. “I’m not sure if I had been over there that I would have approached the car as quickly as he did – I mean you just don’t know if a fuel line is going to burst or what will happen. So for him to jump out and run up there like he did and to get her out so quickly was very impressive. Just after he got her back closer to his car the fire really kicked up – it wasn’t like in the movies where there was a huge ball of flame or anything, but she is damn lucky that he got her out when he did in my opinion.”


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