'Angel With Fire Extinguisher' Saved MD 543 School Bus Crash Victim

BEL AIR, MD — The family of the driver airlifted after a school bus crashed into his car on MD 543 this week wanted to thank the bystander who saved him from his burning vehicle.

Artemis Howe, 30, of Forest Hill, was turning left from Redfield Road onto MD 543 south around 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday when police said a school bus ran a red light and hit his Chevrolet Cobalt.

Callers notified emergency officials that a vehicle was ablaze and its driver trapped near Redfield Road, according to the Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association.

• 2 Charged, 3 Injured In School Bus Crashes On Route 543: Police

"[He] was trapped in the car, and was watching a fire grow in the engine compartment," a family member told Patch. "A bystander flagged down another school bus and grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the fire in my son's car while my son was trapped inside. We would love to find out who that hero is."

Within hours of first responders putting the word out on Friday, the good Samaritan came forward.

Jake Lind, 24, of Bel Air, was on his way to work Wednesday morning when he came upon the crash scene as he was turning right onto MD 543.

"When I got up to the light, I saw a school bus in the opposite lane facing forward in a weird angle, and I saw a car on the right all mangled up," Lind said.

He pulled over to help, and said that a man who identified himself as a city policeman was talking to the driver in the mangled car to try to keep him alert. A woman was assisting as well, and at the driver's request, they called to notify the man's father of the crash. They tried to open the vehicle door and a window to no avail.

"He was stuck in there pretty good. The door was collapsed on his knees, and the dash was in the passenger seat," Lind said.

Initially, he noticed airbag smoke billowing from the vehicle, but as darker smoke began emerging from under the hood, he became concerned about fire since there was fluid covering the driver's side tire. He needed to get a fire extinguisher. Someone suggested a school bus, so he ran up to a school bus that was sitting in traffic.

"By the time I got back, it had turned from a small flame to a decent-sized fire," Lind said of the blaze in the engine compartment. "I sprayed it down underneath the hood. Somebody brought a second larger fire extinguisher."

When first responders got to the scene, they said the fire was out. Bel Air firefighters worked for approximately 10 minutes to rescue the driver before he could be flown for treatment, according to Rich Gardiner, spokesman for the Harford County Volunteer fire and EMS Association.

The driver has since been released from the University of Maryand R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center.

In their search to thank those who assisted, the victim's family found the driver of the bus that stopped with the fire extinguisher. Wanting to locate the good Samaritan who extinguished the fire, the family reached out and within hours, Lind was connected to them through the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company and Facebook.

Relatives told Patch Friday night that they had spoken with Lind and planned to deliver some of their home-cooked chicken soup as a sign of gratitude. They also commented on the Facebook post that their family member had angels watching out for him, including the "hero who grabbed a fire extinguisher" from the bus and put out the blaze before it overtook the man's car.

"He had an angel looking over him," one person wrote on the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company's Facebook post.

"God bless the Angel with the fire extinguisher!!!" another said.

"I think I did what anybody would have done," Lind told Patch Friday evening.

Around Thanksgiving last year, he said he pulled over to check two cars involved in a head-on collision near MD 22. "I don't think I'm astute at it," he said. "I just happen to be there."

He was not sure whether he should identify himself after the callout on Facebook Friday but his friends and family said that if he had been the one involved in a crash, they would want to thank the person, so he did.

By trade, he handles industrial machinery at Shoreline in Havre de Grace. He works on cars as a hobby.

"I texted my boss and said, 'I'm going to be late,'" Lind recalled of what happened Wednesday morning. "When I got there, he was in the shop, and I had Chem-Dry all over my boots and pants from the fire extinguisher. I told him, 'I had to put out a car fire.' He said that was a good excuse."

Photo courtesy of Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company.