Stephen Riser was on his way to Gainesville to visit a client when he drove up on the wreck. A Dodge Ram pickup truck had plowed into a tree and was on fire.
“Whatever was in the bed of the truck was all over the road, including a transmission and toolbox,” says Riser. “He must have hit really hard.”
It was late in the morning of January 6. Riser was the first one on the scene.
“I got out of my car and called 911,” he tells Now Habersham, recounting that morning on Pea Ridge Road at the Habersham-Hall County line in Alto. “They were asking questions, and I told them, ‘I’ve got to get this guy out of the truck.'”
The driver, Christopher Frazier, could not free himself from the wreckage. His passenger, Crystal Wendt, was still in the cab next to him, dazed and confused by the impact.
“I couldn’t move good,” recalls Wendt. “Chris wasn’t able, I think, to understand ’cause he was literally on fire.”
After dialing for help, Riser ran to the burning truck. With the driver’s side in flames, he moved to the passenger side and found Wendt. After helping her to safety, he turned his attention to Frazier and pulled the burning man to the ground.
“His clothes were on fire. I pulled off whatever clothes I could so he wouldn’t keep getting burned,” recalls Riser. “I put him out with wet leaves…I patted him out with my hands…whatever was around me, I used to put out the fire.”
“He was burned really badly. He was saying, ‘Please help me. Please help me,'” says Riser.
As the trio waited for help to arrive, a man and woman emerged from the house across the street.
“The couple from the house helped out a lot,” says Wendt. “The lady sat with me, helped me walk, and talked to me. She prayed with – or over – me, and the gentleman went to help the other guy move Chris. He ran to his house and got a cover, and I am sure he prayed with Chris.”
Right time
Riser lives about a half-mile from where the wreck happened. “It was just dumb luck that I was driving down there,” he says. But it was good luck for Frazier and Wendt.
When firefighters arrived, the pickup they were in just minutes before was fully engulfed in flames.
Paramedics airlifted Frazier to the burn unit at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Wendt says he has a “very long road of recovery ahead of him.”
After that harrowing and heroic incident, Riser went on to visit his client in Gainesville. He was happy to return to the more sedate, much safer life of an IT pro.
“My daughter’s an EMT in Chatham County and was saying she’s never come across a scene like that,” he says. “It was a pretty crazy day.”
Wendt is now home from the hospital, on her way to recovery, and grateful for Riser and the neighbors who helped.
“I am very thankful for them. It was a wonderful act of bravery, kindness, and compassion,” she says. “Without all three of them, I am not sure how that morning would have turned out.”
Unlike his daughter, Riser is not in the business of saving lives, but he says if he had to, he would do it again.
“I just couldn’t let somebody burn to death.”
“I’m happy I was able to be there at the right time and had the strength and wherewithal to make an impact,” he says. “I just hope if I was in that same situation, somebody would do the same for me.”
