Dennis Wilson helped to save Nathanial A. Wissink from burning, Omaha, Nebraska, February 26, 2016. Wissink, 28, was unconscious and trapped in the front passenger seat of a car after it was struck on its driver’s side by a pickup truck traveling at high speed through a residential neighborhood. The car, which burst into flame, was demolished, with its back end split almost apart from the front, its fuel tank ruptured, and most windows broken out. Flames issued from the rear of the vehicle, including the backseat area, and were spreading toward the front seats, producing dense smoke. Wilson, 66, retired field investigator, was at his home nearby and immediately ran to the scene, where he and two other men responding from the neighborhood learned that Wissink was still in the vehicle. Wilson went to its driver’s door and in repeated attempts reached through its window opening, along with the other men, locating Wissink but finding that he was trapped by wreckage. Reaching deep into the smoke-filled car, they pulled on him until he was freed, Wilson standing adjacent to flames at the rear of the vehicle. The men pulled Wissink head first through the opening and dragged him to safety, flames shortly engulfing the car’s interior. Wissink required hospitalization for treatment of his injuries.
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