Woman pulled from burning wreck by two strangers

ROANOKE RAPIDS — When Lee Horsley got his hunting gear out Wednesday night, he didn’t expect to do any more than just to load the truck. Little did he realize in a few moments he would be in the middle of a real-life crisis.

“I walked out of the house, putting my backpack in the truck,” Horsley, a real estate agent in Roanoke Rapids, recalls. “I heard the tires squeal and told my wife to call 911.”

The squealing tires belonged to Lisa Parks’ car, which had slid off Thelma Road and slammed into a tree.

But Horsley didn’t know that as he jumped into his truck to follow his ears to the accident scene. “On second thought, I thought it could have been somebody hitting a deer and might not be an emergency,” Horsley said. “I told my wife to hold off on 911; I hate to bother 911 with something like that.”

Horsley jumped into his truck and drove down the road. About 500 yards away, he found Lisa Parks and her vehicle. “I drove up and saw the car had hit the tree head-on,” Horsley said. “I saw the car was on fire and called 911.”

He approached the car quickly and saw Parks in the driver’s seat. Horsley checked the car for other occupants — he initially thought he saw a baby seat — but Parks was alone. He hung up on 911. “I didn’t have the time to answer a bunch of questions,” he said and called his wife to tell her to bring fire extinguishers.

Another passing motorist, David Fowler, stopped to help. “He deserves a lot of credit,” Horsley said. “He helped just as much as I did.”

Horsley approached the passenger door, which had been opened. “Somebody said ‘let’s get her out the driver’s side,” Horsley says. Horsley and Fowler approached the driver’s side. “As we approached a large flame shot up in the air; everybody scattered,” Horsley described.

He thought the car had exploded, but once he realized it had not, the urgency of the situation began to press on his senses.

“That’s when things start going through your mind,” Horsley says. “Like ‘this girl’s going to burn up in the car. We’ve got to get her out.’ That’s when I reapproached from the passenger side because that door was open.”

Horsley, who’d taken a flashlight from his hunting gear, looked into the passenger compartment, where Parks, whose legs had been broken in the collision, sat unable to extricate herself from the wreck. “I could see smoke coming up under the dash,” Horsley remembers. “I believe her words to me were ‘get me out of here.’ I reached in and pulled her out. I’m not sure if it was my adrenaline, but it was easy. I just reached in and pulled her across the passenger seat. Her seat belt was off; I don’t know if she unhooked it or what. That certainly helped make it easier.”

After reaching into the burning, smoking car to pull Parks to safety, Horsley was still in harm’s way. “Fowler assisted me in getting her across the street. It wasn’t more than 10 seconds after we got her down on the shoulder (on the opposite side of the road from the accident) when the tire blew up; that’s how bad the heat was.”

“I don’t know how long it takes for someone to die from smoke inhalation,” Horsley says. “But her car was full of it.”

Shortly after placing Parks on the shoulder, firefighters from the Davie Fire Department arrived. “You’ve got to give the Davie Fire Department credit,” Horsley stated. “They were there on the spot.”

Horsley didn’t hesitate to help during the incident. Faced with a victim unable to get herself out of a wrecked, burning vehicle he acted despite the risks. “I was thinking the car was going to blow up,” he says. “But I can get away, she can’t. You’ve got to give up your safety for someone who can’t help themselves. With two broken legs she ain’t going nowhere.”

“If I had abandoned her and let her burn up I don’t know how I would have lived with myself,” Horsley stated.

Despite the obvious selflessness of his actions, Horsley does not feel what he did is that big of a deal. “I had somebody who needed help and I helped her. I would want you to do it for me, if I was on fire.”

Parks is in serious condition at Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville.