When Jeremy Pendergraft and his wife, Jenilynn, saw a dust cloud suddenly appear across Interstate 15 on their way home from Colorado on April 18, their training as first responders immediately kicked in.
"My wife, she's a paramedic, and I'm a firefighter and we both know what that means," Pendergraft, a San Bernardino County firefighter said. They knew they were coming upon a traffic collision.
What they didn't know was just how bad it was.
"I said to him, 'I think there was an accident,' " recalled Jeremy Pendergraft's father, Gary Pendergraft, who was in the back seat of Jeremy's truck along with his wife, Debra Pendergraft. "He said to me, 'That's a body.' Then he and his wife jumped out and tried to stop traffic."
The Spring Valley Lake couple found themselves at a horrific crash scene, where five people were ejected from a vehicle after its tire blew, causing the driver to lose control.
The 33-year-old firefighter/paramedic moved his truck to protect the male driver -- later identified as Rafael Gonzalez, 46, of Las Vegas -- who had landed in the middle of the southbound lanes of the interstate near Holloran Springs. He then ran back to two tractor-trailer drivers and asked them to move their big rigs to form barriers across the lanes of traffic to protect the four other victims.
With the victims and themselves protected from oncoming traffic, Jeremy Pendergraft and his wife, a paramedic with American Medical Response, went to each victim trying to assess their injuries and trying to keep them calm as rescuers made their way to the scene.
"We did as much as we could with the limited resources we had," Jeremy Pendergraft said.
At one point during the ordeal, a woman who said she was a doctor approached Jeremy Pendergraft and offered him her stethoscope to better evaluate the victims.
"I don't think she was an emergency room doctor," he said. "I think she may have been a podiatrist."
It took rescuers about 20 minutes to arrive at the location. In that time, the Pendergrafts, along with other good Samaritans, worked to control traffic and comfort the victims.
When firefighters arrived, Gonzalez, along with Isabel Arellano, 29, and Eddie Gonzalez, 23, also of Las Vegas, had died of their injuries. Three other people survived.
"I sincerely want to thank Jeremy and his wife for their efforts in preserving human life," Capt. Mike Frieling, of the San Bernardino County Fire Department, wrote in a letter. "Their actions during this incident were invaluable to all of the responders and, more importantly, the victims of a tragic occurrence."
Now, when Jeremy and Jenilynn Pendergraft share some of their stories with Gary and Debra Pendergraft, the family has a greater appreciation for what the couple does.
"He's always talked to us about his stories, but to see it firsthand, we're really proud of both of them," Gary Pendergraft said.
Copyright 2012 - Daily Press, Victorville, Calif.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
