When Zach Savage and his 10-year-old son Myles left their Pop Warner football game on Saturday, August 3, to attend a friend’s youth soccer game, they had no idea the unprecedented circumstances they would encounter on the way.
Before heading to the soccer game, they needed to stop by their house, a fortuitous decision, to say the least. As they drove past a trailer park on Silver Salmon Drive, Zach caught sight of something shocking: a pickup truck engulfed in flames.
“[We] realized it was a truck that was on fire, engulfed, in between two trailers. We pulled up a little further, and people were running around with their little, tiny fire extinguishers that weren’t really doing anything. And we stopped, and I was like, ‘I’ve got a tow strap in the back, let’s help these people out,'” Savage said.
To make matters worse, the truck was parked between two trailer homes, sitting about 15 feet apart. As the fire grew, Savage could see that the flames were even brushing up against the homes. Zach jumped to action, working with bystanders to connect the tow strap to the burning vehicle. Solomon Rash, who lives in one of the two trailer homes next to the truck, connected the tow strap to the burning rig so that it could be pulled free.
“I backed up, and we threw it in four-wheel drive and dragged it out of there before it caught anything else on fire,” Savage said.
It’s always wise to be prepared for emergency situations, and Savage had just the right tool for the job—although perhaps not the exact situation he would have ever imagined needing to use it.
“I never thought I would need it for that. I mainly keep it in case I slide off the road during the winter, or if someone else slides off, we can help them get back on the road. Yeah, it’s something good to have in your rig, that’s for sure.”
While Zach was helping pull the burning truck away from the homes, Myles was busy doing his part by calling 911.
“When I was sitting there, I was like, ‘What do I do?’ And then I was like, ‘I’m gonna call 911,’” said Myles. “So I called the dispatch and got the firefighters over there.”
Once the Kenai Fire Department arrived on the scene, Zach and Myles received some well-deserved accolades for their role in saving the two homes.
“[The firefighters] said, ‘They are very lucky that you were here,'” Savage said. “Because some of the trailers were starting to catch on fire, the ground all around them.”
The day turned out to be an eventful one for the father and son. A win for Myles Saints football team, then saving a couple of homes from a truck fire, all just in time to catch a friend’s soccer game.
