When Mickey Brislin saw smoke off Matson Road Sunday, his first thought was that someone had lit a fire — not that someone was on fire.
Brislin, a mechanical contracting company owner, was on his way home on Black Creek Road after taking his dogs for a ride, when he saw a car burning about 30 yards off of Matson Road.
Thinking quickly, he used his in-vehicle communication system, OnStar, to call firefighters to the scene and then rushed to help, armed with a crowbar, knife and hammer from his toolbox.
Meanwhile, 62-year-old Gregory Gabriel was pinned inside his burning car. Gabriel had gotten too hot, his blood sugar dropped and he veered off the road.
When the car slammed into a tree, Gabriel got trapped inside, said his wife, Shirley Gabriel.
“He had already started moving because the fire was getting to him,” Brislin recalled.
Brislin and off-duty Mississippi Highway Patrolman Derrick Beckom, who lives nearby on Military Road, were able to pull Gabriel out through a back door Brislin pried open.
“His pants legs were on fire,” Brislin said. “As soon as we got away from the car, it blew.”
A few minutes later, and Gabriel might have been dead instead of undergoing treatment for burns at a Jackson hospital.
“It seemed like an eternity,” Brislin said, “but it was really only about 20 minutes from when I called OnStar to when the fire department got there.”
“He wants to thank them from the bottom of his heart,” Shirley said Friday, from her husband”s hospital room at University Medical Center. “He said he knows if they didn”t pull him out that he wouldn”t have lived through it.”
Gregory Gabriel”s legs and stomach are badly burned, his wife said. He also has deep lacerations on his arms and hands “from the flying glass.” And his hip and pelvis were broken.
“He”s not doing so well,” she said, as nurses tended to her husband.
Since undergoing surgery, Gregory Gabriel also has lost his sight.
“He sees shadows,” Shirley Gabriel said. “They”re not sure (why).”
Still, Gregory Gabriel is thankful to be alive.
“They saved his life,” Shirley Gabriel said of Brislin and Beckom. “We can”t thank them enough.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.