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Daniel O'Beirne, a volunteer Wood-Ridge firefighter, was heading to work at as a corrections officer in Avenel when he saw the southbound tractor-trailer cab in front of him hit a sign pole then burst into flames, around 1:15 p.m., in Linden.
O'Beirne pulled over, jumped out of his car and ran over to help the truck driver -- who he said was standing on the running boards of his truck, engulfed in flames.
"This guy looked at me with a stare that said 'Help me,'" O'Beirne recalled to Daily Voice that night. "And he knew I was coming to help him."
Without thinking twice, O'Beirne pulled the driver off of his truck, took the shirt off of his own back and began patting him down to put out the flames. But the fire burned through O'Beirne's shirt, and so he took his pants off, and used those.
As O'Beirne was patting the driver down, Jordan Reed, an emergency medicine physician assistant with eight years of EMT experience, along with another driver who had a fire extinguisher, ran over to help.
Reed, who works in Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill's emergency department, along with O'Beirne used the fire extinguisher to put out the rest of the blaze consuming the driver, then got him safely to the side of the road.
Reed, of Boothwyn, PA, then began collecting water bottles from passing drivers -- and gathered several from his own car -- to clean the powder from the extinguisher off the victim, and cool him down.
Reed, O'Beirne and the third good Samaritan were able to get the victim over to the guardrail moments before EMTs arrived. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital with serious burns.
Reed feels the true hero was O'Beirne, "who risked his own life to get the driver out of the burning vehicle," Reed said.
O'Beirne, meanwhile, said Reed did many things that helped save the victim -- like cooling him down with the water -- that he might not have thought of.
"Everything went as smoothly as it could for a bunch of strangers," he said. "It was all-around a team effort. There is nothing that I would have changed.
"If I could buy [Reed] and the other truck driver who came with the extinguisher a round of beers, I would -- 40 times over."
"The overall coordinated response by local fire, EMS, 2 NJ corrections officers who stopped, and NJ Turnpike Police was excellent in the chaotic situation," Reed added.
"They should all be commended for their great work and professionalism. We hope that the driver and all others involved have a full and speedy recovery."
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