It’s a painful memory for Kelvin. “Unfortunately, the woman died,” he says. Yet he risked everything to help her.
Invited by our colleagues from RTL Infos, Kelvin shared the incident that forever changed him.
It was a Sunday like any other for the thirty-year-old and his family. They were on their way to meet friends for lunch when they came across what was clearly a very serious accident.
“I pulled over to the side of the road and then got out of the car, making sure the door was locked,” he explains. It was then that he realised the extent of the disaster. A car lay on its side, engulfed in flames, with a lone occupant trapped inside.
“At first, I thought there were two people in the vehicle, but it turned out to be a woman and her dog,” he says. While some people were talking and others filming, Kelvin decided to act: “Help hadn’t arrived yet; I had to do something.”
Ignoring the intensity of the flames and the risk of explosion, he first tried to open one of the car doors, without success. He discovered that “the car had become airtight,” rendering access to the trapped woman and her dog impossible.
Rushing to the back of the vehicle, Kelvin tried to shatter the window. After considerable effort, it finally gave way. As he made his way inside, “the suffocating smoke and intense heat engulfed me.” “I couldn’t see a thing, couldn’t breathe,” he recalls.
But the thirty-year-old didn’t give up. He turned his attention to the sun roof. “I didn’t have anything to help me, it was hopeless,” he recalls. Eventually, the glass shattered, and he tried to extract the driver from the fiery inferno.
“It seemed impossible; her foot was trapped,” he says, clearly still emotionally affected by the experience.
By this stage, the flames were getting bigger and the people on the spot were advising him to give up: “They told me to give up, that nothing more could be done for this lady. But I couldn’t fathom letting her suffer like that.”
With the help of “two young Portuguese men,” Kelvin set about turning the car around. He explains that he succeeded “without really knowing how.” He tried to open the doors, which were now accessible, but the result was the same.
Unfazed, Kelvin resorted to using his hands and elbows to break another window.
Undeterred by the flames and shattered glass, he persisted in freeing the woman from the car: “I could feel my arms burning but I couldn’t leave her there.” Finally, Kelvin managed to extricate her and her dog from the vehicle.
The woman was in a critical condition but conscious.
Kelvin swears that, as he carried her away from the inferno, she locked eyes with him. “It was a moment I’ll never forget,” he says. His memory of what happened next is somewhat hazy.
Severely injured, with burns covering his hands and arms, and intoxicated from smoke inhalation, he vaguely remembers being administered oxygen “all the way to the hospital.”
As a professional lorry driver, Kelvin found himself unable to work for two months. “I couldn’t do anything, my wife had to take care of everything,” he explains, referring to his heavily bandaged arms.
They are now living with the burden of what happened in Gilsdorf last November. “My wife couldn’t sleep for several weeks. She was there and saw everything. For me, it depends on the day. I try to be strong for my family because there are days when it’s hard. You don’t know why you’re sad and then it comes back to you…"
But Kelvin is adamant: “I’d do it again without any hesitation. I’d like someone to do it for me or for my mother if she ever found herself in this situation. Those are the values I was taught, and you know, in the Latino community, family is everything.”
Originally from Honduras and “proud” of his Catalan roots, the lorry driver was keen to send a message to the people who have the reflex to film instead of act in this kind of situation. “There were quite a few of them filming that day,” he confides.
He understands that some people react differently in stressful situations, but he finds no justification for the misplaced curiosity of some motorists. “Call the fire brigade, give them a hand. Things can be very different when you help each other,” he pleads.
“Without any protective equipment, you freed a person from a burning car (…) You are a role model for us all,” the Prime Minister declared.
“An honour” for the lorry driver, who cannot help but feel a bit sad. Despite his best efforts, the woman succumbed to her injuries in hospital.
He has kept in touch with the victim’s husband.
“He came to see us two weeks after the accident. He thanked me and was so kind to my family. He sat my children down and told them they could be proud of their father. It was a moment that really touched me.”
