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By Mina Xavier, October 22, 2008 7:59 am

Officer Paul Wille is one lucky man.

The entire story, reported locally, can be found here.

While responding to a call for backup, Wille was headed south on Old York Road in Mercer County and lost control of his patrol car at a bend in the road. He slammed into a tree and a light pole before settling in a ditch.

What followed is a stunning example of personal heroism.

Lisa Scott had just begun eating dinner with her daughter, Shannon, and her daughter’s boyfriend, Terrence Nish, when they heard the crash. The three ran outside to find Wille unconscious and his car smoking.

Terry tried to get the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. Then smoke started coming out from under the hood and we started to panic,” Lisa Scott recalled. “Then a woman pulled up in a Suburban. Terry took the trailer hitch off her car and broke the (patrol car’s) window.

Their attempt to pull the officer from the wreckage was again hindered when the seatbelt could not be released. Wille regained consciousness long enough to hand over his utility knife, which Nish used to cut the belt and free him. As they pulled him through the window, flames were already consuming the passenger seat.

Nish and several others carried Wille to safety as ammunition in the car began to go off, setting the car ablaze with minor explosions from within.

They’re heroes. What they did was extraordinary. They got him out before the car exploded,” said Old York Road resident Frank Sparacino.

My significant other is from a nearby neighborhood and he knows the area very well. After seeing it reported live on the news we decided to drive past the scene later that night. The powder was still on the pavement from the flares in the road and the smell of smoke and munitions discharge was still heavy in the air.

What moved me to bother blogging this story was the fact that these people had the presence of mind to act rather than flee danger. And after being met with two impediments — a jammed door and a stuck seatbelt — they still lingered within inches of harm to do what was needed to save a random stranger.

This incident has restored much of my faith in the authentic goodness of humanity.