The SUV had already left the highway when Michael E. Coy saw it.
It was April 18, 2024, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Samuel D. Orbovich, 71, was unconscious inside his sport utility vehicle after it struck the base of a lamppost. Fuel leaked from the vehicle and caught fire.
The SUV came to rest with the driver’s side only inches from a guide rail.
That mattered.
When Coy reached the vehicle, he went first to the driver’s side and pulled on both door handles. Neither door could open because the guide rail blocked them.
The fire was already spreading underneath the vehicle and toward the passenger side.
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Coy had to choose between waiting and going around to the side where the fire was moving.
He went around.
Coy was 52 years old and worked as a delivery driver. He had been traveling on the same highway when he witnessed the crash. He saw Orbovich slumped over a deployed airbag on the steering wheel.
On the passenger side, flames had already ignited the grass.
Coy opened the front passenger door and climbed partly inside. He kneeled on the passenger seat while flames from underneath and beside the vehicle licked at his feet and lower legs. He had to keep shifting to avoid being burned.
Inside, he helped Orbovich remove his seat belt.
Then he helped him move into a position where he could sit on the center console with his feet against the driver’s door. The plan was to drag him backward out through the passenger door.
But the fire kept advancing.
Flames entered the passenger compartment through the open door. They also came through the dashboard, vents, and floorboards. The heat forced Coy out.
Soon after, flames fully engulfed the passenger compartment, blocking him from getting back inside through the passenger side.
Coy shifted the plan.
He called for others to break the driver’s side window and moved back toward that side of the SUV. A state highway worker used a window punch tool to break both driver’s side windows.
Orbovich pushed his legs through the front driver’s side window opening.
Coy and other bystanders grabbed his legs and pulled him through.
They carried him to the highway. Coy, who had a history of emphysema, had to let go because smoke had made it difficult for him to breathe. Others carried Orbovich farther away and placed him behind a vehicle to shield him from the fire.
Orbovich was taken to the hospital for injuries from the crash.
Coy was treated for smoke inhalation and minor burns to his face, arm, and legs.
Both recovered.
The rescue did not work the first time.
The driver’s side doors were blocked. The passenger side was burning. The first extraction plan failed when flames entered the compartment.
Coy kept changing the approach until there was still one way left.
A window.
What He Did And Why It Is Worth Noticing
Michael E. Coy stopped after witnessing a crash, entered a burning SUV through the passenger side, helped free and reposition the unconscious driver, then worked with others to pull him out through the broken driver’s side window.
That is what he did.
It is worth noticing because every usable path changed under pressure. The driver’s side doors would not open. The passenger side was exposed to flames. The passenger compartment became too hot to reenter.
Coy did not stop when the first plan failed.
He adjusted until the driver could be pulled through the window.
An unconscious man was trapped in a burning SUV. Coy entered through the side that was already dangerous and stayed with the problem until the man was out.
That changed what happened next.
If the safer side of a burning vehicle was blocked, would you try the side where the fire was already moving?