Two men who stopped at a horrific crash on an Alberta highway that killed seven people last week say they didn't have time to think as they pulled survivors from the burning wreckage.
Eli Day and Dion Lefebvre were travelling on Highway 63 between Fort McMurray and Edmonton in a moving van April 27 when they saw two trucks collide head-on and burst into flames.
When the pair witnessed the crash in the vehicle's rearview mirror, they spun the truck around and headed for the scene.
"There was no time to think, there was just time to do," Lefebvre told CTV Edmonton Thursday.
"As a human and a father, you don't hesitate," he said.
Day, who is also a dad, sprung into action and pulled three-year-old Timothy Wheaton from one of the burning trucks.
The boy's parents, Shannon and Trena Wheaton, along with his younger brother Benjamin, 2, were killed in the crash.
Day still has a tough time holding back his emotions about pulling the boy from the wreckage, and saving his life.
"(We have) some serious connection anyway, for only knowing him for 50 minutes," Day also told CTV Edmonton.
Lefebvre also helped pull an 11-year-old girl out of the other demolished truck, but Faith Kondusky Sennett later died in hospital.
At the same time, Day was pulling the only other survivor of the tragedy out of the wreckage 鈥� 34-year-old Mark Penney. His wife, Courtney Penney, 28, was also killed. She was six months pregnant.
Mark Penney remains in hospital.
"We all worked very well together in a chaotic situation," Lefebvre said about the other six people who stopped at the scene.
"It was amazing to see humanity doing its thing," he said.
News of the heroic efforts of strangers at the crash scene provided some comfort to families grieving the loss of their loved ones.
"It means a lot, it means a lot," Julia Wheaton, the great-aunt of Timothy Wheaton, said in a telephone interview with CTV Edmonton.
"He (Day) risked his life to save somebody, and I think he did a wonderful job," she said from her home in Fredericton, N.L.
"I think we did the best we could in a terrible situation," Day said.
"I had Timothy in my hands the entire time."
With files from CTV Edmonton's Jessica Earle
