Capital Gazette photojournalist Paul Gillespie was sitting in his Brooklyn Park home office, or his “sanctuary” as he calls it, when he heard a loud crash around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Gillespie initially thought the sound was thunder. He looked outside and saw a downed tree in his front yard, which he thought a storm had knocked over — except it wasn’t raining.
That’s when he looked over and saw a car on his neighbor’s lawn.
Gillespie ran to the driver’s door while his wife called 911. Inside the car was a mother and her two children, and as smoke billowed from the front of the car Gillespie knew he had to act quickly.
“The whole time, I’m seeing smoke coming from the front of the car and I’m thinking ‘This car is on fire. It’s going to get bad quick.’”
While the car never caught fire, Gillespie said he was just worried about making sure everyone got out safely.
He ran to the back door on the passenger’s side, where he struggled to free a baby from their car seat.
“I don’t know how to open a baby seat or anything,” he said. “I couldn’t get the baby out of the seat.”
After fiddling with the straps, Gillespie was able to remove the seat with the baby still in it and carry them away from the car.
Meanwhile, a neighbor rescued the other child, and the mother was able to get out of the car.
So I just pulled a baby out a smoking car that took out tree in my front yard. Driver may have a broken arm, but babies seem okay. What else can happen today? It was pretty scary. I though it was going to completely go up in flames any second pic.twitter.com/tTe737T8Tu
— Paul W. Gillespie (@pwgphoto) July 8, 2021
Asked if he felt any hesitation running into a car that could have been engulfed in flames, Gillespie said “not really.”
“Especially when I found out there were kids in the back, I just had to do what I could,” he said.
“It was all just reaction,” he added. “I was just thinking, ‘I have to get them out.’”
After he ensured the family was safe, the Pulitzer Prize winner put his journalism skills to use, snapping images and posting his encounter on Twitter,
Gillespie said he lives on a busy, curved road where “people are constantly speeding” and “accidents happen a lot.”
Although Gillespie has thought about situations like these before, Wednesday night put his instincts to the test.
“You always think about what you would do if you saw something like that happen,” he said. “You read stories. I always thought I would do something, and I did.”
Now, Gillespie is looking for a chainsaw and pick up truck to remove the tree and debris that remains.
Guess I’m now responsible for somehow getting rid of this mess or I’ll really be in trouble with the neighbors and the grass/yard police. I don’t have the time, energy or money to deal with it this week. I may need to borrow a chainsaw and pick up truck, lol. pic.twitter.com/hY3xIv6TgI
— Paul W. Gillespie (@pwgphoto) July 8, 2021
A spokesperson for the Anne Arundel County Police Department reported that nobody involved in the crash suffered life-threatening injuries.
