Donnie Black, life guard at
Club Carolina here, saved a life recently, but it didn’t happen at the
swimming pool. Black, 16 and a rising 10th grader at Cherryville High
School, has been credited with saving the life of a railroad engineer
who was trapped and semiconscious in the wrecked and burning cab of his
engine.It all began while Black was taking a break from his lifeguard
duties. One of his fellow lifeguards informed him that “there has been
a train wreck or something.” Black dashed outside in time to see a huge
puff of black smoke roll skyward. He and some others around the
swimming pool leaped into his car and headed for the accident.
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Donnie Black age 16 Lifeguard
and a
life saver on July 13, 1966
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“When we got here,” Black
says, “another fellow and I saw this man halfway out of the overturned
cab. We pulled him out and he told us that there was another man
inside.”Others had arrived on the scene by this time, but there
apparently was some discussion as what to do about the man trapped
inside. Meanwhile the blaze from the fuel oil was growing bigger and
hotter.
“I stuck my head inside and
talked to the man,” Donnie says. He was trapped under his seat with a
big fire extinguisher on him. He told me had enough air. I told him we
would get him out as soon as we could get a rope. It was about five
minutes before someone brought a rope. Then the men standing around
were talking about who was going in. I just couldn’t stand around and
see this man die in there.”
So, young Black took one end
of the rope and went down inside the oil-filled cab. He pulled the fire
extinguisher and pieces of metal off the trapped man so he could get
the rope around his waist. Despite the torturous heat from the flame
just outside and the hot oil in which he was moving barefooted, Black
worked the engineer loose and assisted in getting him out of the cab.
“He had a broken arm and a
broken leg so I had to keep him from being hurt more, he said. The
engineer, Garland Stutts of Sanford, was brought out and rushed to a
hospital where his condition today is described as serious. Young
Donnie Black, his feet blistered by the intense heat, is back at work
today, perched on his lifeguard stand at Club Carolina. He is not
particularly interested in being a hero. “It was something I had to
do,” Donnie said “I couldn’t let him just die there.”
The rescue occurred
following the spectacular head-on collision of two Seaboard freight
trains one-half mile east of Cherryville on last Wednesday July 13,
1966. One man died in the wreck. Two others, besides Stutts, were
injured. Two escaped uninjured. A newly installed switch that, somehow,
failed to operate properly was reportedly the cause of the accident.
 On the scene witnesses to the heroic rescue were high
in their praise of Black’s efforts. “If ever anyone deserved a hero’s
medal this boy does,” one man commented. “He risked the heat, flames
and possible explosion to bring this injured man to safety. It was a
wonderful thing.”
“We begged him not to go in,
“ another man said, “But he said, “the heck with it, I’ve got to try!”
And try he did.
So, today, like it or not,
Donnie Black is a hero. He must think some about what happened as he
sits on his lifeguard perch . . . and from time to time, comes down to
dangle his feet in the cool waters of the pool.
Donnie Black is the son of
Mr. and Mrs. Carroll Black of Route 1 Crouse, NC. His father is a
line-haul driver that runs to Florida for Carolina Freight Carriers
Corporation.
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