Emmett woman hopes to thank the heroes who pulled her from burning truck

Ellen Ethington wants to send out a whole lot of gratitude and a batch of cinnamon rolls to the three men who saved her after a fiery crash Monday along Interstate 84 near Mountain Home.

The 72-year-old woman was hauling 72 quarts of canned peaches and three baby blankets to Utah when she lost control of her truck. She was going to visit friends and hand out the peaches to her children in Utah. She then planned to fly to New York to help her granddaughter who was having a baby.

The last thing Ethington remembers is "the sound of the road when you are a little too far over."

The vehicle hit a rock embankment and rolled. Ethington was knocked unconscious and flames spread from the engine.

It was at that moment that Lt. Col. Doug Edwards, an Air Force C-17 pilot moving his family from Tacoma, Wash., to a base in Illinois, saw the crash and flames.

Edwards' wife, Joy, driving in a different car, called 911. He ran back to check on the injured driver.

"I could see the flames and the smoke coming out of the hood," Edwards said Tuesday during a phone call from somewhere near Topeka, Kan. "The windows were all busted out. It was clear the car had rolled several times. As soon as I came around all I could see was a body slumped over. I kept saying, 'Please don't let this person be dead because I really don't want to deal with that.'"

Edwards said he shook Ethington and yelled at her and tried to get the vehicle's doors open. Ethington was incoherent and covered in peaches and broken glass. As the minutes dragged on, Edwards started to get desperate.

"She was slumped over, I couldn't move her," Edwards said.

Two more men stopped on the other side of the interstate and ran across the median to help. Someone had a fire extinguisher, which Edwards said he used to "buy more time," so they could get Ethington out before the fire spread to the cab. "I don't know where those two guys came from. I couldn't have done it," he said. "I remember someone saying, 'The seat belt is released.' "

Ethington's face was badly bruised, her left eye swollen shut, and the truck's dashboard was beginning to bubble from heat and flames as the three men started to pull the still-unconscious woman out of the car, Edwards said.

"Her right leg was really tight in there. I just grabbed underneath her arms," Edwards said. "The only thing holding her back was her shoe on her right foot. I think she was the one that wiggled it free. Someone grabbed her legs and we ran her away from there."

Someone had the presence of mind to grab Ethington's purse, Edwards said. The men laid her on the ground and gave her "cave man first aid," holding her neck and head steady until emergency workers arrived, Edwards said.

"I can't believe the time compression here," Edwards said. "For me, this took an eternity."

However, it was only seven minutes from the time Joy Edwards called 911 until Elmore County sheriff's Deputy Kevin Henslee arrived at the scene.

"She's a lucky lady," Henslee said. "I told (the three men) that if they didn't think they saved a life, they were wrong. If they hadn't gotten her out of the vehicle when they did, she would have died. By the time I got there, it was too late."

Henslee didn't get the men's names. Edwards called Henslee on Tuesday to check on Ethington. The identity of the two other rescuers remains a mystery.

Ethington's son, Scott Ethington, rushed to the hospital in Mountain Home with his brother to check on his mother. She had a concussion and some serious bruising, he said. She didn't break any bones or suffer any burns, and her fighting spirit was still intact.

Scott Ethington said he later went to see the charred remains of her vehicle. The only thing that still looked like a truck, he said, was a single tail light. Two jars of Ethington's canned peaches remained.

"It was a miracle," Scott Ethington said. "There is no doubt this was a modern-day miracle. It looks as if she was in a terrible boxing match with Muhammad Ali. She is a fighter. She doesn't let anything get her down, period."

Ethington's husband died four years ago. She says she is being well taken care of by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Ethington said she's relieved the season is over so she won't have to re-can those 72 quarts of peaches.

She is ready, however, to bake a "big batch of homemade cinnamon rolls" for her rescuers.

"I'm better than I ought to be. I'm doing well," Ethington said. "Those guys obviously saved my life. I must find them and thank them. They were a gift. Those guys didn't have to stop unless somebody nudged them. They are good men. There must be other things I need to do."

Meanwhile, Edwards insists he is just an ordinary man and not a hero.

"Yeah, it's starting to hit me that she may not have been able to see her grandchild," Edwards said. "The set of circumstances that put me there at that time are almost too enormous to grasp."

Kathleen Kreller: 377-6418