In a split-second decision that saved a life, a Phoenix woman’s decades of experience as a firefighter’s spouse became the difference between life and death when she witnessed a violent collision at a busy intersection.
Julie Reed was waiting at a stoplight in north Phoenix when she witnessed a car crash into an SUV, sending it careening into the intersection. As smoke began pouring from the damaged vehicle, Reed made a choice that most bystanders wouldn’t—she leaped from her own car and ran directly toward the wreckage.
Training from home made all the difference
Reed’s quick response wasn’t born from formal emergency training, but rather from a quarter-century of marriage to a Valley firefighter. The years of absorbing her husband’s emergency preparedness lessons and crisis response protocols had prepared her for exactly this moment, even though she didn’t know it at the time.
Working quickly, Reed managed to extract the trapped driver from the smoking vehicle. Moments after she pulled him to safety, the car erupted in flames.
“I think it was just kind of a surreal experience just being able to, you know, someone else’s hero at home step into that,” Julie said. “That light and show up in the ways I know that my husband has done, you know, for decades.”
Emergency crews arrived on scene
Phoenix fire department personnel arrived shortly after Reed’s rescue and quickly extinguished the blaze while providing assistance to both drivers involved in the collision. Both individuals emerged from the incident without serious injuries.
Reed expressed gratitude that she happened to be in the right place when someone needed help. Her actions demonstrate how everyday experiences and knowledge gained over time can equip ordinary people to respond extraordinarily when crisis strikes.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” — 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)
