The front of the car was already burning when A.J. Slater reached it.
It was the evening of November 7, 2024, in Lakeland, Florida. A car had left the street after an accident and came to rest nearby. Inside were two children still strapped into their child safety seats.
Walker Wills was 3.
His sister, JoLynn Wills, was 5.
Their father was outside the car on the ground with lower-body injuries from the crash. According to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, he called for Slater to help the children.
Slater was 30 years old and worked as a heavy equipment operator. He had been driving toward the scene when he saw fire at the front end of the car.
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He stopped.
Then he ran to the driver’s side.
The rear driver’s side door opened.
Inside, smoke had already thickened. Flames were burning on the dashboard. Slater leaned into the car and saw Walker’s knees in the closest car seat.
He worked the buckle.
The first task was direct. Get the child out.
Slater unbuckled Walker and removed him from the car. He placed him in the grass nearby, away from the vehicle.
That could have been the end of what he was able to do.
It was not.
Slater had seen JoLynn’s clothing on the opposite side of the car. She was still strapped in. The fire was spreading toward the front seat headrests, and the interior conditions were worsening.
Slater climbed into the vehicle.
He sat between the two car seats and tried to free JoLynn from her seat. The heat was extreme. Smoke limited visibility. Fire was moving closer through the front of the car.
He briefly got out.
Then he went back in.
Slater returned to the interior and continued trying to remove JoLynn until the heat and worsening conditions forced him back from the car.
Firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire.
Walker survived. He suffered burns to his face and right arm and spent 11 days in the hospital.
JoLynn remained inside the vehicle and did not survive.
Slater was also hospitalized for 11 days. He suffered burns to his hands, right shoulder, and right ear. He later underwent two skin graft surgeries to help his hands heal.
The story does not end cleanly. Some stories do not.
One child was removed. One was not. The effort did not produce the full outcome everyone wanted.
But the action itself remains clear.
Slater saw a burning car, opened the rear door, pulled one child out, and returned into the vehicle to try to reach the second child while the fire was spreading.
He did not stop after the first rescue.
He went back in.
What He Did And Why It Is Worth Noticing
A.J. Slater stopped at a burning vehicle, opened the rear driver’s side door, removed 3-year-old Walker Wills from his car seat, then climbed back into the car and tried to free 5-year-old JoLynn Wills as the fire spread.
That is what he did.
It is worth noticing because the situation did not offer a complete resolution. Slater was able to remove one child and tried to reach the other under worsening conditions that eventually forced him out.
The fire was active. Smoke was thick. Heat caused burns severe enough to require hospitalization and skin graft surgeries.
He still returned to the car.
A crash left two children trapped. Slater got one out and kept trying for the second until the vehicle would not allow it.
That changed what happened next.
If you had already pulled one child from a burning car and knew another was still inside, would you go back in?