A pair of roofers from Maberly, Ont., who were travelling to Dryden, Ont., for a job, were not expecting what they experienced in the afternoon of July 4 along Highway 17 near Mattawa.
Matt Monkhouse, 27, who is also a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of Maberly, located near Perth, was the passenger with his 19-year-old co-worker Ewan MacMillan.
They were driving behind a dump truck that suddenly veered off the highway.
"We were driving behind him when his tire blew," recalls Matt.
"He obviously rolled, and I literally told Ewan to pull over as I am a firefighter and ran up. I was trying to support him."
See related: Scary dump truck accident near Mattawa
Monkhouse says the driver of the dump truck was dangling out of the windshield face down and covered in blood with his legs pinned because the front of the cab was pushed in.
"So I went up and tried to support him because he was hanging by the weight of his legs," said Matt.
"Ewan held him and I climbed up the side of the dump truck. I pried the door open. I had to remove close to 200 pounds of equipment off his legs, like toolboxes and stuff then I could get in there and unpin his legs.
"There was fluid leaking so I knew we couldn't leave him in the vehicle so we needed to get him away from the vehicle."
Monkhouse has had all the "first responder" training as a volunteer firefighter but he admits this was the first time he has had to be the lead.
"I have helped on scenes but this is the first time I have gotten right into it," said Monkhouse.
Monkhouse credits the help of his colleague Ewan who worked closely with him to get the 64-year-old injured driver away from the crash.
Matt says Ewan has decided he is going to apply to become a volunteer firefighter too.
"He said after this experience, he has to do it," said Matt about Ewan becoming a volunteer firefighter too.
Monkhouse says a firefighter from Mattawa attended and police and paramedics arrived shortly after they had removed the driver from the dump truck.
"We had gotten him out and away from the vehicle and the Mattawa firefighter brought a first aid kit and helped apply first aid to him," said Monkhouse.
Paramedics took the driver to the Mattawa Hospital as he was treated for bad cuts on his head and a badly injured wrist.
It was quite an experience for the young roofers that they will never forget.
"The adrenaline was really going," said Monkhouse.
"We had to sit at the side of the road for 30 minutes just to calm down afterwards because we were shaking."
The two fast acting roofers were thanked by many of the witnesses who also stopped but realized the dump truck driver was fortunate to be driving just ahead of a volunteer firefighter and another soon-to-be.
"It does not matter but we had people coming up to us and said we were amazing," said Monkhouse.
"We did not need that, we felt amazing as it was just helping the guy."
A few days after the incident, Monkhouse connected with the injured driver and the driver called him and Ewan "his guardian angels."
Ironically too, the injured man was a volunteer firefighter for more than 25 years himself.
