Portrait of a Local Hero

For the past few days, Eddie Evans has been a local celebrity. His phone has rung nonstop with requests for interviews as well as friends and family saying they saw him on TV. Strangers on the street have recognized him instantly. People want to shake his hand, buy his lunch and ask him for a blow-by-blow account of his tale. Nearly everyone in metro Atlanta heard some version of the story within hours. Evans is known to most of these people simply as “that guy who saved the guy from the car that ran into the gas pump.”

Evans is surprised by his newfound celebrity and has not let it go to his head. “I’ve been staying out of Dodge, because it’s not about me,” said Evans. “I had no idea that much was involved in saving somebody’s life.”

On first look, Evans, 57, is a pretty average Tucker resident. Born in Cleveland and raised in West Virginia, he came to call Georgia home in 1985 and has stayed put ever since. He’s worked the same job for the last 19 years and thinks of his coworkers as family. He is strong in his Christian faith and convictions. He checks out audiobooks of Bible stories from Cofer Library to listen to at work. When he goes out, Evans doesn’t stray far from his Tucker home. You’ve probably crossed paths with him countless times.

Talking with him for an hour as he sipped an Arnold Palmer at Grecian Gyro on Lawrenceville Highway revealed a much more dynamic character. Evans is a technology wiz, but he prefers to work with his hands – though his arthritis has impeded these endeavors of late. He can dismantle and fix your iPhone in minutes, but his phone of choice is a low-tech, late-model Samsung. He builds and fixes bicycles for the neighborhood kids. He carries a harmonica in his pocket and is not afraid to use it. He says you can find family and friends at his house any time of day or night. His teenage son is soft-spoken, well-mannered, and holds his father in high esteem.

For more than five decades, Evans has lived with the early childhood memory of his failed attempt to save his baby sister from a house fire. Unable to remove her from her bassinet, Evans was pulled from the blaze by a rescuer unaware that he was wrenching Evans from his younger sister.

“Whenever I see fire, it comes to my mind,” said Evans.

So when Evans watched a car involved in a collision at the intersection of Clairmont and Briarcliff Roads careen off the roadway, collide with a gas pump and burst into flames, watching the driver perish in the blaze was simply not an option for him.

Unable to get a call through to 911 and realizing the man might not survive the wait for emergency response, Evans and another man ran straight into the fire and attempted to free the driver from the wreckage. When repeated attempts to untangle the man from the seatbelt, airbag and twisted metal failed, Evans knew they were running out of time. Arthritis momentarily forgotten, Evans seized the man by the torso with both arms and pulled him straight out of the vehicle and to safety.

In Evans’ mind, though he acknowledges the extraordinary circumstances, this wasn’t an act of heroism or even coincidence. Upon learning the man he saved had also given his life to Christ some years earlier, Evans said it all “clicked.” He believes God had him at that intersection at that moment for that purpose.

“I’m just glad God opened the door,” said Evans.

When his 15 minutes of fame have expired, Evans will resume his life as usual and will likely not be recognized everywhere he goes as a hero. The fiery car wreck will slip from the public’s mind and Evans’ face will blend back into the sea of faces you pass every day. Evans, however, will remain a hero – not just because he saved a man’s life in this instance – because he is quietly a hero every day to his family and friends, because he strives to better the lives of the people around him, and because he seeks nothing in return.