Fire chief saves car-crash victim

A car crashed into a tree caught fire on the morning of April 13 near the intersection of Sweetmans Lane and Charleston Spring Road in Millstone.

MILLSTONE - Fire Chief James Carbin pulled a man out of a burning car the morning of April 13.

The Millstone Township Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services were dispatched to the intersection of Sweetmans Lane and Charleston Spring Road for a motor vehicle accident in which the vehicle had caught fire, according to a fire department press release.

Carbin arrived first on scene to find a vehicle that had gone off the road and crashed into a tree. The vehicle's engine compartment had caught fire, and the blaze was extending into the passenger compartment, according to the release.

Carbin approached the vehicle and saw the victim unconscious in the back seat, the release said.

"Without regard to his own personal safety, he immediately opened the rear passenger-side door and entered the vehicle, which was now filled with smoke and fire, and grabbed the victim and removed him from the vehicle," Alan South, a spokesperson for the fire department, said in the release.

The victim was later transported to a local trauma center via the state's aeromedical program and treated for his injuries.

The accident is under investigation by the New Jersey State Police.