Cobb County firefighters credited a customer at a gas station with potentially saving the life of a middle-age man who caught fire when his motorcycle ignited at the pump Thursday.
The customer, Billy Houston, told Channel 2 Action News the motorcycle’s blaring music prevented the 53-year-old man from hearing Houston’s warning that fuel was pooling by his motorcycle, which was running at a Chevron on Trickum Road at Shallowford Road just after 8 a.m.
Houston then saw the motorcycle and the man ignite, and he ran to assist as the man crawled away, taking off a sweater and using it try to smother the fire.
“There was a lot of screaming. He was panicking. He was on fire,” Houston told Channel 2. “I was just trying to help … to do my part.”
Firefighters said Houston’s quick action may have kept the fire from spreading past the man’s legs and lower body.
“He was burned pretty severely,” Cobb fire spokesman Dan Dupree told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Houston was burned on the hand trying to put out the fire, Dupree said. The fire also damaged the gas pump and caused slight damage to the fuel island canopy.
The motorcyclist was flown to a local hospital, and Houston was taken by ambulance to a hospital and treated, Dupree said.
Houston returned to work, his burned hand bandaged, feeling anything like a hero.
“I just held his hand man, just held his hand you know what I mean?” Houston told Channel 2. ” Just tried to, he was in some pain.”
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