"They're my angels."

When a semi-truck hauling corn overturned along Horace Brocton Road on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the crash quickly became a race against time. Inside the wreckage, driver Brad Eastham was trapped as flames began to spread. Nearby, two women heard the crash, saw the smoke and ran toward the danger.

Chelsea Vietor and Hope Gillaspie had no time to weigh the risks or consider what might happen to themselves. They knew someone could be inside the burning truck, and they had to find out.

Their actions helped Eastham escape a wreck he believes could have cost him his life. That moment forever changed how he sees the two women who rushed to his aid when he needed it most.

“I had two angels there that helped me,” Eastham said. “If it wasn't for them, I don't think I'd be here. I think I'd burn up in the truck.”

The crash began when Eastham, who had driven a semi for more than 40 years, was traveling west on Horace Brocton Road. As he crossed a bridge and passed Gillaspie's horse barn, a tire on his 1986 International blew out.

The failure sent the truck into a ditch. Eastham fought to regain control and brought the truck back onto the road, but the trailer began to slide. The shifting load buckled the truck and overturned it.

As the vehicle slid, Eastham saw sparks. Then came the fire.

He tried to escape, kicking at the windshield as the flames grew. But the windshield wouldn't give way, trapping him inside the cab.

Gillaspie was among the first to hear the crash.

“There was so much dust I couldn't even tell if the truck was laid over or upright,” she recalled. “And then finally, when the dust cleared, I could already see smoke.”

She ran down the road, calling her mother as she went. At nearly the same time, Vietor came over a hill and saw the aftermath.

The two women were quickly drawn together by the same question: Was the driver out?

They approached the wreckage and began looking for Eastham. Gillaspie remembered hearing him yell. Vietor could see only his foot through the wreckage, but that was enough to tell them he was still inside.

“He's still in there,” Vietor recalled.

There was no time to wait for someone else to take the lead.

Vietor's parents arrived on a side-by-side vehicle, and the women asked whether they had a hammer or anything that could help them reach the trapped driver. They did not.

So the women used what they had: their hands and feet.

They began kicking at the windshield, trying to create an opening large enough to pull Eastham free. The glass and windshield construction proved harder to break through than they expected.

“I remember us being like, ‘This is not coming off as quickly as I thought,’” Vietor said.

Inside the cab, Eastham was running out of time. He remembered telling the women that it was getting hot.

Vietor reached for the damaged windshield and tried to pull it back, working to open a way out. Eventually, the women created enough room to reach him. They grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him from the truck.

It was not a gentle escape. Eastham had suffered serious injuries, and the women were trying to get him away from a vehicle that was on fire. But getting him out was only the first step.

Vietor remembers looking at Eastham's face and recognizing him. She knew he needed reassurance, but she also knew they couldn't stay beside the wreckage.

“Brad, you're gonna be fine,” she told him.

Eastham wanted to sit down, but Vietor and Gillaspie continued helping him away from the truck. With assistance from Gillaspie's father, they moved him across the road and farther from the danger.

The women estimate the rescue took only minutes, though the urgency made it feel much longer. Eastham remembers the crash itself and parts of the rescue, including Vietor telling him he would be OK.

Once emergency personnel arrived, Vietor and Gillaspie stepped back and let them take over his care.

Eastham was transported by helicopter to Springfield Memorial Hospital, where medical personnel could address his injuries and concerns about smoke inhalation and possible damage to his airway.

He suffered a broken collarbone, a broken nose, facial fractures and burns. His injuries required further medical attention, but he survived.

For the women who helped him, the experience did not end when the ambulance and helicopter left. In the immediate aftermath, adrenaline carried them through what needed to be done. Only later did they have time to process what had happened.

The experience also showed how quickly an ordinary day can turn into an emergency, and how much a person can do when someone else needs help.

When asked why they ran toward a burning semi, neither woman needed an elaborate explanation.

“Instinct, I don't know,” Gillaspie said.

“Help your neighbor,” Vietor added. “I mean, you always try to make sure everybody's okay.”

Eastham and Gillaspie had never met before the crash, although Eastham knew people connected to Gillaspie's family. Vietor had known Eastham for years.

In those moments, the distinction did not matter.

Eastham thanked everyone who responded and helped that day, including emergency personnel and the family members who helped move him away from the truck.

Vietor also specifically recognized Chrisman Fire and EMS for checking on her and Gillaspie after the incident, even though they were not the ones injured in the crash.

For Eastham, he will carry the women’s actions with him long after the wreckage is cleared and the injuries heal. He doesn't see their actions as small or ordinary, even when they are reluctant to accept his praise.

“To them, it probably doesn't seem like much, but to me, it means a lot,” he said.