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CRESSON, Texas<\/strong> – The fire chief for a Tarrant County department was honored for his bravery on the job after he rushed into burning wreckage to save an occupant on Labor Day.<\/p>\n Cresson Fire Chief honored <\/p>\n Cresson Fire Department Operations Chief Richard Ward was honored Saturday for his heroism by the Cresson Fire Department and the CT 100 Club.<\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n It was Labor Day night in Tarrant County, just after 8:24 p.m. when a call came in, multiple cars, people trapped, and a vehicle on fire.<\/p>\n Among those rushing to the scene was Ward. He didn\u2019t know it yet, but he was about to make the kind of decision that defines a life.<\/p>\n Three minutes and 53 seconds after dispatch, Ward pulled up to chaos: debris, human remains and a burning car.<\/p>\n In just one minute and 15 seconds, Ward rescued the driver, triaged six patients, and called for ambulances and a helicopter. Within 32 minutes, everyone was transported.<\/p>\n The driver Ward pulled from that burning car survived. Four people died that night; three others were badly hurt. But one lived because Ward didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n Chief Ward describes the scene <\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n “It was pretty quick. I honestly don’t really remember everything that I kind of did, just the training kicked in,” Ward said.<\/p>\n “We’ve had some pretty gruesome accidents, and this is definitely top-three. Honestly, it’s probably the top one I’ve ever seen that’s this gruesome,” Ward said.<\/p>\n So gruesome that we can only show a cropped clip of the heroic rescue. What you can\u2019t see is Ward running to the wreck, where he found a woman strapped in the passenger seat.\u00a0Her injuries proved to be fatal.<\/p>\n Ward cut her seat belt, pulled her remains free, and then crawled through the front to reach the driver\u2019s seat where a man was still alive and trapped.<\/p>\n “I kind of tunnel visioned, and it was just like, hey, that guy’s breathing, and he needs to come out one way or another,” Ward said.<\/p>\n “I really wasn’t focusing on the fire. I mean, yes, I saw it, I could feel it, but it wasn’t like, I was like, hey, there’s a fire there. Like, you just kind of know it’s there, and you put it in the back of your mind to get the job,” Ward said.<\/p>\n He says it isn’t him alone that deserves the credit, and he shares it with the strangers who disappeared before he could thank them.<\/p>\n “I had help from bystanders, and honestly, without those bystanders, I couldn’t have been able to do it all by myself, so I do thank them,” Ward said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “So I kind of wish they were here so they could get recognition too, because without them, I wouldn’t be able to do what I did,” Ward continued. \u00a0<\/p>\n The Source:<\/b> Information in this story came from FOX 4 coverage at a Cresson ceremony.\u00a0<\/p>\n