FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — An off-duty firefighter is being credited with saving others after being struck by a falling tree as he was trying to warn others to get out of its path.
Selvin Sandoval was walking his dog Wednesday afternoon on Eaton Road in Framingham when all of the sudden he heard loud cracking, soon realizing a tree was about to come crashing down.
“We got away from it, but then we saw the DPW truck coming in,” Sandoval said.
The 39-year-old tried waving down and yelling at the truck driver stop, but it didn’t work.
“I ran into the middle of the street so they could stop and unfortunately the tree still got me,” Sandoval remembered.
Not only did the tree “get him,” it pinned him underneath, knocking him out to the point where he lost consciousness.
“At first, I couldn’t see when I got out of the tree. I was covered in blood,” Sandoval recalled. “Someone started guiding me away from the tree because we also had two power lines that fell so there were two charge lines on either side of the tree. If I couldnt’ see I probably would’ve walked right into it. Who knows?”
As the tree was falling, Sadoval let go of the leash for his dog, Walter, hoping his instincts would tell him to run away. Walter did run away and not long after, a neighbor found him about a half mile away and brought him back home.
As for the DPW workers, Sadoval’s wife Melissa said they were able to stop just in time thanks to her husband’s efforts.
“Luckily, because they stopped early, it had just cracked their windshield and then fell on the front of the truck, but I was thinking, if they had gone any further, it’s a massive tree, it definitely would’ve crushed the people. When I ran out, all the guys were like ‘Oh my gosh, he saved us. We would have been crushed,” Melissa said.
Sadoval was off duty at the time but has been a Waltham firefighter for 15 years, a part of the group that goes to local schools, teaching fire safety to kids. Before that, he served in the army in which he was deployed to Iraq for over a year.
“I love it,” Sandoval said. “Helping people. I’ve always been trying to give back to the community, the country that I grew up in. My family came here at immigrants.”
It’s that desire to help people that has led Sandoval to continue running toward dangerous situations, even in this case where he ended up with cuts and bruises all over his body, plus a concussion and huge gash to the head that required staples.
“I’m very thankful. It could have gone a lot of ways. Glad it wasn’t worse than this. I think anybody would do the same,” Sandoval said. “If you see something, do something.”
Sadoval’s scans at the hospital came back clean, and he’s on the mend dealing with dizziness from the concussion and some soreness, but it expected to be okay.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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