Pair pulled man from burning car
Showing no fear for their personal safety, a Taranaki couple dragged a man from inside a burning car seconds before the vehicle burst into flames.
Leif Johnsen and Monika Deptula had been swimming at Oakura Beach on Tuesday afternoon and were heading up Lucy’s Gully, south of the town, to see redwood trees when they came across the car about 5.30pm.
‘‘I just saw the front of the vehicle sticking out in front of a redwood and I was like ‘there is no side road up here, what has happened?’’’ Johnsen said.
‘‘Then I saw smoke coming out from underneath it.
‘‘There were flames coming from underneath the driver’s side front wheel.’’
Johnsen quickly stopped and saw that the driver appeared dazed and confused.
‘‘Monika then came over and she opened the door and we got him out of the car.
‘‘I assessed it as we were walking over.
‘‘The fire wasn’t very big, if it was I wouldn’t have let Monika go anywhere near it.’’
The 28-year-old arborist then drove off to call emergency services, because he knew the area better, while his Australian girlfriend, who has only been in the country for a month, stayed with the man.
‘‘I sat with him and parts of the car started to light up and I was like ‘This is not looking good’,’’ Deptula said.
‘‘Slowly, bit by bit, things like tyres started exploding.’’
The couple, who met in Sydney two months ago, were then trapped on different sides of the blaze and Johnsen admits he was concerned for Monika’s safety.
‘‘All I could hear was explosions and I wanted to go back up there.’’
Meanwhile Deptula, a surf lifesaver, was comforting the man they had pulled to safety.
‘‘I was worried about him and he just sort of sat down but he couldn’t really do much at all.
‘‘I was asking him questions about who he was and whether he had a family.’’
However the flames and heat continued to increase.
‘‘I said ‘we’ve got to move back further because I think that this is going to explode.’’
Police arrived at the scene within 10 minutes and the fire brigade wasn’t far behind.
Johnsen said the whole ordeal was over in about an hour.
Sergeant Ross Wright said if it wasn’t for the quick actions of the couple the man wouldn’t be alive.
‘‘Had they not done that he would be dead,’’ Wright said.
‘‘Police turned up very soon after, and they said that there’s no way they would have been able to save him.’’
Wright said the incident was not being treated as suspicious and the man had been taken to Taranaki Base Hospital for treatment.
Despite the praise neither Johnsen or Deptula considered themselves a hero.
‘‘Nah, I think for me it was just sort of second nature,’’ Deptula said.
‘‘You have got to do what you have got to do. I’m not a hero; I was just being a human being.
‘‘If you see someone else in trouble you are going to help,’’ Johnsen said.
‘‘I would do it again; I would gladly save someone. If they needed help, I will help them.
‘‘I would like to think that anyone would have done the same thing for me.
‘‘You just do what you have to do; you can’t sit back and watch someone burn to death.’’
The couple agreed it had been a surreal experience.
‘‘It’s a bit scary to think if we hadn’t got there when we did, if we had got there one or two minutes later there would have been nothing that we could’ve done,’’ Deptula said.
‘‘At least he can go home to his family and his family hasn’t lost a loved one.’’
The couple would like to talk to the man they saved.
‘‘I would definitely like to meet with him and make sure he is all good,’’ Johnsen said.
‘‘I would do it again.’’ Leif Johnsen