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Woman rescued from burning SUV

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published July 27, 2006

TAMPA - One instant Natasha Berry was on her way to see a doctor, the next she found herself upside down, a seat belt binding her tight.

She heard someone say, "We need to get her out. The car's on fire."

She said she hit the seat belt again and again, frantic to get out and thinking all the while of her toddler son, who turns 2 next month.

Then she sensed someone reaching in, pulling her free.

The 23-year-old Wal-Mart customer service employee from Town 'N Country held cold compresses to her chest as she lay on the couch and went over the accident that turned her life, literally, upside down.

Nine weeks pregnant, she had been on the way to a clinic for her first checkup, with a friend, Adhanet Kidane, 22, who is five months pregnant. It was around 1:30 p.m.

On Kennedy Boulevard near Himes Avenue, traffic slowed, and she noticed a car behind her was closing fast. She said she turned onto the median to keep from being rear-ended, still got bumped, and her Jeep Cherokee flipped over on its top.

As luck would have it, one of the drivers in the westbound lanes where she landed was Wes Stevens, 19, of Brandon, an emergency technician in training. Lots of emergency workers wait years for that first save. Stevens got his before being hired.

He saw the Cherokee flip, and the undercarriage in flames. Stevens said he slammed on his brakes, ran from his car and rushed to pull the driver out.

The woman was crying and holding her stomach, he said. So, he carried her to the side of the street and, within minutes, paramedics were on the scene, and firefighters put out the blaze.

"It's kind of what I've been training for the past year and a half," said Stevens, who graduated from Bloomingdale High and recently became a volunteer firefighter. He said he has an employment application on file with Tampa Fire Rescue.

Capt. Bill Wade of Tampa Fire Rescue said three people were taken to St. Joseph's Hospital: Berry, Kidane and a third injured person. No information was available about that person at press time.

Kidane was thrown from the vehicle, Berry said, and was helped to safety by other onlookers.

Berry said in all the confusion she didn't remember who pulled her out, but she was deeply grateful for his help and that of others who came to the scene to assist.

"Thank God for him," she said. "You hear it on the news every day people don't make it out alive. I'm so happy everybody made it."

[Last modified July 27, 2006, 06:18:07]