COVINGTON – Bystanders are being credited with saving a woman’s life following a fiery wreck at Midway Market IV Thursday morning.

The accident happened around 8 a.m. near the intersection of Highway 51 and Church Street. Covington Police Chief Donna Turner said the driver, a woman traveling southbound on Highway 51, appears to have suffered a medical incident before her car left the roadway.

Her vehicle struck a gas pump and the pole supporting the station’s canopy, shearing the pump from the island. Covington Fire Department Lt. Nick Tindall, who responded to the scene, said the silver four-door sedan also clipped an unoccupied pickup truck parked nearby.

The car ignited almost immediately.

Tindall said the flames had already tripled in size by the time bystanders reached the vehicle.

Surveillance footage from the gas station shows Drew Gookin, Ariel Harrell, and another man springing into action.

Gookin likes to take rides in the mornings, he said, and he was on his way to Naifeh’s to buy diapers for his newborn son, among other items.

“I just really happened to look over, and there’s a car on fire at the Midway. And the windows are not tinted, so I can see someone in there,” he said. “Nobody’s around this car, and I see a person in there, so I’m just like, ‘Let’s get we got to get her. We got to get her out of the car.'”

He pulled over at the former Deez Auto Choice lot across Church Street, ran to the car with a dumbbell in hand, ready to break a window to reach the driver. He didn’t need it — he got the door open, and he and a second man, whose identity has not yet been confirmed, pulled the woman from the car.

“We didn’t pull her very far [at first], then we ended up pulling her a very good distance apart from that ’cause it started to exploding, but it was fully engulfed when I got there,” Gookin said.

He said the driver, whose name has not been released, needed emergency medical attention. Harrell is a registered nurse who instructed them to give her mouth-to-mouth.

Turner said the woman regained consciousness after she was pulled clear and was taken to the Baptist Memorial Hospital-Tipton by ambulance.

A Midway Market employee, identified by police and fire officials only as Ruby, also acted quickly, running outside to shut off the station’s fuel valves as the fire grew. Covington Fire crews arrived shortly after and extinguished the blaze, then worked to secure the underground fuel tank to prevent a second explosion.

“We’re very blessed to have had citizens spring into action,” Tindall said. “Got her out before things got too bad for her. The fire got pretty big pretty quickly. We would like to thank them for helping us out.”

Officials credited three things with keeping the crash from becoming far worse: the pump’s built-in shear valves, which are designed to snap away and seal off the flow of gasoline in a collision; Ruby’s quick shutoff of the station’s outside valves; and the bystanders who pulled the driver free.

When interviewed, Gookin said he wasn’t trying to be a hero.

“I can’t drive by and not see. I knew that there was no EMS. I knew there was no police. I knew there was no firefighters. I knew there was nobody. I really just saw something. I had to do something. That’s it.”

He wants to send the message that he and the other gentleman worked together to say the driver’s life.

“I don’t want to take the credit for everything ’cause I didn’t do it,” Gookin said.

He also hopes the driver is okay.

“We were completely blessed that nobody was [hurt] at the gas pumps that were struck, or from the fire,” Turner said, noting how busy the stretch of Highway 51 gets around 8 a.m. “We’re very thankful for the fire department that responded quickly.”