FORT WORTH, Texas — Fort Worth Police Officer Dustin Lamb is looking forward to meeting a man who made it out of a deadly highway crash thanks to his quick action.
“I'm glad he made it," Lamb said about the lone survivor of the wreckage, Evan Ranallo.
The head-on collision killed five people Sunday morning on Northwest Loop 820 in Fort Worth. Lamb was on his way to fuel up and grab a drink at a local gas station, but around 3:30 a.m. as he drove past the interstate, something got his attention.
“I see a big fireball, and I head up, and I had seen two vehicles that had collided and they were mingled together," Lamb explained.
Fort Worth Police spokesperson Tracy Carter said there was a family of four inside one car, a Ford Focus. Both parents and their children died in the crash. One of the occupants in the family's car was identified as 29-year-old Johanna Newsome.
It's not yet clear who was driving the vehicle, but Carter said the Ford Focus was traveling east in the westbound lanes of Loop 820 when it collided, head-on, with Evan in his pickup truck and caught fire.
As soon as Lamb neared the head-on collision, he could hear Evan from inside his burning truck.
“He was yelling for help and screaming, we thought he was on fire," Lamb said.
Lamb is a former firefighter who has been to crash sites before. He described this wreck as one of the worst he's ever seen. Flames were shooting into the sky and surrounding the two vehicles. There were also small explosions which Lamb suspects were the tires reacting from the intense heat.
“The fire was coming underneath the truck, kind of where my boots were. And then I used my vehicle, my patrol vehicle, and pushed the two vehicles apart.”
By the time he got the two vehicles apart, members of the Fort Worth Fire Department and Medstar arrived on the scene. Lamb was able to cut the seatbelt from around Evan and the other first responders helped rescue him, but they could not save his fiancé, Chelsea Cook, who was in the passenger seat.
Helping others is nothing new for the Officer. In fact, since joining the Fort Worth Police Department he has come to the rescue of others several times, putting himself in harm's way. Fort Worth Police recently awarded him Bureau Officer of the Year for a separate heroic act.
"It just gives you chills, MedStar was also there helping, doing their jobs," Officer Tracey Carter said. “The men and women that do this job every day, you just have to give thanks to him.”
As Fort Worth Police continue to investigate the deadly wrong-way crash, they ask any witnesses with information to contact the department.
"Make sure you go the right way, pay attention, and slow down," Lamb said.