Friendship chief pulls her from burning car
Chancery
The stars were lined up in favor of Leandra Corey Morgan who crashed her vehicle last Wednesday afternoon, only to be pulled from the vehicle by Friendship Volunteer Fire Chief Dakota Chancery and by stander Deon Benson a few seconds before her vehicle was engulfed in flames.
Chancery, 32, a 2009 graduate of Flomaton High School, has a full-time job with Mobile Fire and Rescue where he works 24 hours on and 48 hours off.
Chancery happened to be at the Friendship Fire Department about 2:30 p.m. last Wednesday when a 911 call alerted emergency responders to a single-vehicle crash on Foshee Road, about a mile east of Sardine Road, noting there was entrapment and the vehicle was 'smoking'. Chancery said he was supposed to have gone home about two hours earlier but was still at the station when the call came in.
Chancery responded and was the first emergency person on the scene. He said there were bystanders trying to help the crash victim.
"The vehicle was turned over on the driver's side and they were trying to push it over to get her out," Chancery said. "They couldn't get the vehicle rolled back over."
Chancery said he told the people to stop rocking the vehicle and retrieved a tool to stabilize the vehicle on its side before any attempt to free the victim.
He said a fire then began inside the vehicle. Chancery used the stabilizing tool to smash out the rear window of the SUV and crawled into the vehicle. Morgan was in the driver's seat and Chancery was able to free her enough to begin dragging her toward the back of the vehicle.
Chancery dragged Morgan to the back of the vehicle and said Deon Morgan, who had come up on the crash, was standing outside the back window. Morgan was able to drag Morgan out the back of the vehicle and as they dragged Morgan away from the vehicle it burst into flames and became fully involved.
Morgan was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, but Chancery said she was lucky to be alive.
"She's lucky," Chancery said. "There were people there at the right time."
He said that began when Angie Layton came upon the crash and immediately called 911 and began flagging down other motorists to help.
"If she hadn't called 911, if I hadn't been at the fire department and if others were not there to help, she would have likely been trapped inside that burning vehicle," Chancery said. "Another 3 minutes she would have been trapped inside."
Flomaton Fire Chief Steve Stanton said he was not surprised that Chancery put his own life in jeopardy to free the woman from the burning vehicle.
Stanton said Chancery joined the Flomaton Volunteer Fire Department when Chancery was 18 years old.
"He's come up through the ranks and is still one of the greatest firemen Flomaton has ever had," Stanton said. "He didn't do what he did for any glory or recognition he simply did it to save the girl's life. He knew what he was doing because he's been trained since he was 18 and he's a great fireman for the entire county and area."
"Dakota knew the risk when he entered that vehicle," Stanton said. "But he did so to save her life."
