In 1994, when Reed Norwood was 16 years old, he and his dad took a hunting trip to South Dakota. On their way back home to Denver, Norwood offered to take over driving for a while so his dad could rest. But it was already dark, and as they drove down the interstate, Norwood fell asleep at the wheel.
"[When] I woke up ... my dad was grabbing the steering wheel, and so then I reached over and grabbed the steering wheel myself and tried to get control of the truck," Norwood recalled.
The truck swerved back and forth, crossing lanes of traffic. Eventually, Norwood lost all control of the vehicle. It careened off the side of the road and rolled four and a half times, until it ultimately slid to a stop.
"We ended up on our top. I was completely pinned in the truck. I couldn't move at all. My neck [was] broken. My arm had gone out the driver's side window and was now crushed under the roof of the truck," Norwood said.
Somehow, Norwood's father climbed out of the truck.
The teenager couldn't see anything. His head was bent forward, nearly touching his chest, but he could hear his father's panicked screams outside the driver's side window. That's when Norwood realized the truck had caught fire.
"I went through the stages of dying really fast that night. I remember, you know, initially hollering to try to get him to get me out, and then [a] kind of a calm came over me," Norwood said.
As smoke started billowing into the cab of the truck and as the heat of the fire grew closer, Norwood listened to a song still playing from the stereo. It was one of his favorites, a song called "Satellite" by Dave Matthews Band. The whole experience felt surreal.
"I was just kind of ready to accept my fate [of] only being 16 years old [and] that this is kind of where my journey ends," Norwood said.
"And right about that time, [a] trucker had pulled over to stop and help. He came down with two 20-pound fire extinguishers, and he put the fire out and he absolutely kept me alive."
The trucker stayed until a state trooper showed up. Then, he told Norwood's father that there was still some extinguishing agent left in one of the fire extinguishers in case the fire flared up again. They never saw him again.
"It took firefighters about an hour to cut me out of the wreckage. And it took months to heal from a broken neck and my crushed arm, but the trajectory of my life completely changed after that night," Norwood reflected.
"I'm now a fire captain at West Metro Fire Rescue in Lakewood, Colorado. I'm in my 23rd year, and I've made it my mission to help serve the community, just like those firefighters did that night."
Norwood attributes the life he has now to the trucker who saved him from the fire more than 30 years ago.
"I always think back to that trucker, and I wish I could have shaken his hand, given him a hug and thanked him. Thank you for saving my life that night and for letting me continue to write the stories of my life."
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