Hero runs into flames to save man from burning truck in Wisconsin
By Maurice Savage
Click here for updates on this story
LA CROSSE, Wisconsin (WXOW) — A 21-year-old man is being called a hero after pulling a man out of a burning pick-up truck on Saturday.
Kieran McKinney had just pulled up to his residence at 10th and Tyler in Lacrosse on the Fourth of July, when he saw a pickup truck engulfed in flames. Bystanders were screaming for help. McKinney was told there was a man trapped inside the vehicle. A woman was yelling for someone to help.
“She was yelling, help, help, help. And I didn’t even have an inkling that someone could be in the truck” McKinney said.
Without a second thought, McKinney ran to the truck and into the flames to help save the man.
“I need to get this guy out of the truck, so I run around. The flames are coming up onto his torso and onto his face,” McKinney said. “I couldn’t tell if he was conscious, I couldn’t tell exactly where he was at in that moment. But the fire wasn’t pushing up onto his legs yet, so I was able to scoot him over, grab him by his legs and pull him out of the vehicle.”
McKinney’s mother, Jennifer McKinney, said she was not surprised her son took this risk.
“It totally checks out that Kieran would do that because he is a brave, selfless person who thinks of others before he thinks of himself. So it didn’t surprise me,” Jennifer McKinney said.
The man McKinney pulled from the burning car was 26-year-old Cody Krueger. Following the incident, Krueger was flown to the burn unit in Madison in severe critical condition. Krueger suffered third-degree burns on 25% of his body.
Krueger’s family has set up a GoFundMe.
Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.