By Jo Ross
October 09, 2008 09:18 am
—
Matthew “Matt” Cribbs was ready to respond to a car fire in the Foodway parking lot last Thursday. After noticing the car was on fire, Cribbs, 18, quickly alerted the passenger seated inside moments before the vehicle burst into flames.
“I saw the smoke and the lady sitting inside didn’t seem to notice,” said Cribbs, an employee of the grocery store and a full time student at North Florida Community College in Madison. “I told her she needed to get away from the car.”
After ensuring her safety, Cribbs ran inside the store, alerted store personnel and grabbed a fire extinguisher before returning to the vehicle.
By the time he returned, the engine of the 1993 Cadillac, belonging to Walter Woodson of Jasper, was smoldering and flames had begun to rise from beneath the engine. Cribbs began spraying the extinguisher under the car while sirens could be heard in the distance coming to the rescue.
Acting Jasper Police Chief Mike Holton was first to arrive on the scene and began fighting the flames, allowing Matt to move to safety. Firefighters from the Jasper Fire Department arrived and within moments, the blaze was extinguished.
Matt returned to work inside the store when the fire department arrived. When asked by The Jasper News if he felt like a hero, Matt just gave a little smile.
“No, I really didn’t do anything,” he said. “I just knew she needed to get out of the car and I tried to help.”
No one was injured in the incident, but the car was a total loss. Mechanical malfunction and failure of equipment was the cause of the fire, according to the fire department report.
“I’d like to thank Matt for attempting to extinguish the flames. His efforts helped to control the fire until we could arrive,” said Jasper Fire Department Chief Bill Trinder. “However, I would caution untrained persons to be extremely careful in situations like this due the fact that there are numerous parts on a vehicle that can explode and cause serious injury.”
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.