Just When You Thought Everyone Involved Might Have Died, This 'Hero' Shows Up

When a semitruck and car got into an accident in near Biloxi, Mississippi, another trucker witnessed the incident as it unfolded into a fiery, fatal-looking explosion — and caught it on his dashcam.

"That guy's dead, dude," one of the men in the cab said as he watched the accident unfold.

Image source: YouTube

As cars around the blaze came to a stop, the trucker, later identified by Jalopnik as David Fredericksen, said, "should we go out there and see if we can get them out of the car?"

"No. What are you gonna do?" the other man replied.

"I got a fire extinguisher," Fredericksen said after sighing.

Image source: YouTube

Fredericksen was next seen jogging from his truck to the accident in shorts and a sleeveless shirt carrying a red fire extinguisher. A person, who was presumably in the truck with him, followed afterward. Others also emerged to help as well.

Image source: YouTube

Watch the footage:

"Thankfully my father had the presence of mind, bravery, and forethought of carrying a fire extinguisher, to be the first person on scene to risk his own life in order to possibly save another and to inspire others and lead them into taking action," the YouTube user going by steakbbq wrote of the video. "Everyone involved in the rescue effort is a hero in my books."

Others in the comments agreed with steakbbq's assessment, calling his father a "goddamn hero."

Though the timestamp on the video would have you believe the incident happened in 2013, the poster of the footage wrote that the accident occurred on August 11. The Gulfport Police Department did not immediately return TheBlaze's request for comment regarding the dashcam footage, but tweets and Facebook posts by WLOX-TV help corroborate the timing of an accident happening last Monday on I-10.

Image source: @WLOX/Twitter

Image source: @WLOX/Twitter

The news station reported that a woman and child — a grandmother and 1-year-old granddaughter, according the description on YouTube — were rescued from the burning car unharmed.

The incident happened when the Lincoln Town Car failed to yield while heading into traffic, and hit the semitruck driven by Scott Swanstrom.

"I started to get into the left lane when I saw her fish tailing and started swerving and she just came straight across from the on ramp right across two lanes into me," Swanstrom told WLOX. "All I could do was stand on the brake and hold on."

Later, as he walked toward the accident, Swanstrom said he saw a stroller and that's when he started to cry.

"I'm just glad everybody is OK. I don't know how we made it through that. I'm just glad that baby is OK," he told the news station.

The news station didn't mention the actions of another truck driver who might have helped save the woman and child from the burning car.

On WLOX's Facebook page, Jeannette Odom Swanstorm, Scott Swastrom's wife, wrote that she was "I'm very thankful to have him sitting in front of me, in one piece. I'm also glad that the mom and baby in the other car got out safely."

A user going by Aberroyc on Reddit wrote that this area of the I-10 is notorious for accidents.

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[instory-firewire]