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Nov. 16--A father and son from Crozet saved a life by pulling three people from a burning car last week.
Warren Wood Jr. and his son, Robert, were debating what to have for dinner when the call came Thursday night, alerting the volunteer firefighter to a crash on Half Mile Branch Road.
The two immediately jumped into his Jeep and headed for the scene, arriving in minutes at the nearby wreck. Flames were already coming out of the engine compartment.
Bystanders told Warren Wood people were still in the car, so he raced to where it had come to rest in the road.
"[My son]'s plan was to get some flares, but after he heard that here were people in the vehicle, he knew what I was doing, so he went on down to help me," Wood, who works in facilities management at the University of Virginia, said.
As Wood, a former assistant chief at the Crozet Volunteer Fire Department, worked to free the three people in the car, his son pulled them to safety. By the time Wood freed the third, fire had already eaten through the dash and into the passenger compartment.
"Every situation's different, you know, but we've run enough vehicle fires over the years. I kind of know what's going to blow, what's not going to blow," Wood said.
As the father-son team got the third person clear, rescuers arrived, and firefighters got the blaze down, Wood said.
Of the three people Wood pulled from the car, two were pronounced dead at the UVa Medical Center: Amber Leigh Johnson, 20, and Wayne Johnson, 40, both of Crozet, who were slated to be buried Tuesday.
The third, Jessica Lewis, 36, of Crimora, the driver, remains in the hospital, though her condition has improved slightly, said Sgt. Darrell Byers of the Albemarle County police.
Lewis has been charged with driving under the influence, and other charges haven't been ruled out, Byers said. No one in the car was wearing a seatbelt, police have said.
