article

CRESSON, Texas – The fire chief for a Tarrant County department was honored for his bravery on the job after he rushed into burning wreckage to save an occupant on Labor Day.

Cresson Fire Chief honored

Cresson Fire Department Operations Chief Richard Ward was honored Saturday for his heroism by the Cresson Fire Department and the CT 100 Club.

The backstory:

It was Labor Day night in Tarrant County, just after 8:24 p.m. when a call came in, multiple cars, people trapped, and a vehicle on fire.

Among those rushing to the scene was Ward. He didn’t know it yet, but he was about to make the kind of decision that defines a life.

Three minutes and 53 seconds after dispatch, Ward pulled up to chaos: debris, human remains and a burning car.

In just one minute and 15 seconds, Ward rescued the driver, triaged six patients, and called for ambulances and a helicopter. Within 32 minutes, everyone was transported.

The driver Ward pulled from that burning car survived. Four people died that night; three others were badly hurt. But one lived because Ward didn’t hesitate.

Chief Ward describes the scene

What they’re saying:

“It was pretty quick. I honestly don’t really remember everything that I kind of did, just the training kicked in,” Ward said.

“We’ve had some pretty gruesome accidents, and this is definitely top-three. Honestly, it’s probably the top one I’ve ever seen that’s this gruesome,” Ward said.

So gruesome that we can only show a cropped clip of the heroic rescue. What you can’t see is Ward running to the wreck, where he found a woman strapped in the passenger seat. Her injuries proved to be fatal.

Ward cut her seat belt, pulled her remains free, and then crawled through the front to reach the driver’s seat where a man was still alive and trapped.

“I kind of tunnel visioned, and it was just like, hey, that guy’s breathing, and he needs to come out one way or another,” Ward said.

“I really wasn’t focusing on the fire. I mean, yes, I saw it, I could feel it, but it wasn’t like, I was like, hey, there’s a fire there. Like, you just kind of know it’s there, and you put it in the back of your mind to get the job,” Ward said.

He says it isn’t him alone that deserves the credit, and he shares it with the strangers who disappeared before he could thank them.

“I had help from bystanders, and honestly, without those bystanders, I couldn’t have been able to do it all by myself, so I do thank them,” Ward said. 

“So I kind of wish they were here so they could get recognition too, because without them, I wouldn’t be able to do what I did,” Ward continued.  

The Source: Information in this story came from FOX 4 coverage at a Cresson ceremony. 

Tarrant County