Joseph C. Parker, 38, minister, helped to rescue Albert P. Waller, 30, truck driver, from burning, Dover, North Carolina, July 1, 1964. When a dump truck and a tractor trailer collided almost head on and stopped about five feet apart, diesel fuel leaking from the ruptured tank at the left side of the trailer caught fire. Waller, the driver of the trailer, was injured and knocked unconscious. Running to the cab of the trailer, Parker found that the door would not open fully. Heat was intense. Standing within two feet of the flames, Parker reached into the cab and tried in vain to remove Waller, whose feet were caught. Henry F. Moore arrived and with a fire extinguisher put out some of the flames. Leaning that Waller’s feet were pinned, Moore climbed into the cab through the windshield opening. He attempted without success to free the feet of Waller, whom Parker drew partly through the doorway. The flames burning on the ground then suddenly spread, rising into the air and burning Parker’s arm. He jumped back and released Waller, who dangled near the flames. E. Reid Joyner, who had arrived, ran to Waller, and pushed him back into the cab. Flames then burned on the outside of the cab at the rear, and burning fuel had spread on the ground to the other fuel tank. Heat in the cab became intense, and Moore climbed out. Parker and Joyner made other attempts from the doorway. Joyner freed one of Waller’s feet. Moore called for help in tilting the cab forward to relieve the pressure holding Waller’s other foot. Parker, Joyner, and three other men who had arrived joined Moore at the front of the cab but could not tilt it enough. By then flames, some ten feet high, filled the area between the back of the cab and the front of the trailer. A chain was obtained, and Moore climbed into the cab long enough to attach it to the steering column. The chain then fastened to a truck, which pulled the cab forward and freed Waller’s foot. Moore and Joyner removed him from the cab. Waller was hospitalized for injuries and severe burns but recovered. Parker was treated for burns on his arm, which healed in a month.
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