Henderson Bay students nominated as Red Cross heroes

Gig Harbor teens’ actions rewarded

Hugh McMillan

Special to the Gateway

Henderson Bay High School students Will Britten and Patrick Mirenta have been nominated as Red Cross Real Heroes by the American Red Cross Mount Rainier Chapter.

Each year, the chapter recognizes local heroes from the community during the annual Red Cross Real Heroes Awards Breakfast. More than 500 business and civic leaders attend this annual community celebration and fundraiser for the Red Cross. This year’s event is scheduled for Dec. 4 at the Hotel Murano Bicentennial Pavilion.

A Kids’ Corner story that appeared in the Peninsula Gateway in December, 2008 entitled, “Teens’ quick thinking helps save others after crash,” sparked the students’ recognition.

I believe the nomination-stimulating story deserves repeating. It was written in snowy December 2008:

I thought a long time about whether to put this story together. It has a happy ending, but getting there is painful.

What put me over the edge was seeing vehicles nose down over the edges of roads, thanks to the beautiful white, road-hazard-making snows over the weekend. Some people just don’t get the message: Road conditions of this sort can cause serious accidents; they can kill.

In the case of the following accident, there wasn’t a single snowflake to be found.

On Nov. 25, Key Peninsula Fire Department Division Chief Guy Allen said they were dispatched at 6:57 a.m. to a vehicle crash into a tree at Key Peninsula Highway N. and 102nd Ave.

“It was a single vehicle with four high school-aged occupants,” Allen said.

The vehicle left the roadway for an undetermined reason and crashed into the tree. One patient suffered multiple fractures and another had blunt trauma to the chest and stomach. All four were transported to Tacoma hospitals, two by KPFD, one by the Gig Harbor Fire Department, and one by Kitsap District 7, Port Orchard.

Henderson Bay High School student Will Britten, then 16, had received his original First Aid CPR card from the KPFD while he was in Boy Scout Troop 222.

“I just renewed my card at West Sound Tech this last summer,” he said.

Britten was on the school bus on his way to school when the bus suddenly stopped.

“I saw my driver, Candy White, quickly get out of her seat,” he said. “A woman had come running up to the bus door looking frantic. When the driver opened the door, the woman yelled, ‘The car is on fire and there are kids stuck inside.”

“Candy quickly grabbed her fire extinguisher, and three of us, Jeremy Geer, (of Peninsula High School), Patrick Mirenta from HBHS and myself, jumped up and followed her. I saw a girl on the road holding her leg screaming, ‘I broke my leg!’ ”

White quickly extinguished flames in the engine compartment before they could spread.

The boy who had been in the car, who didn’t want to be identified, said he was trapped but managed to kick out the rear window behind the driver’s seat and drag himself out.

“Just then,” Britten wrote, “the boy who had been in the car yelled at me for help. I quickly ran to him and found a girl with her head stuck between the passenger window and door. I asked her if she was injured and she said she was just stuck.”

Britten noticed that the bottom of the door was jammed shut.

“I told her to stay calm and I would get her out,” he said. “I looked for a way to break the glass without causing her injury. I put my foot on the door and grabbed the top of the glass with both hands. I pulled on the glass, causing it to shatter and freeing the girl’s neck.

“I saw Patrick and Jeremy helping her safely away from the car. Patrick took off his jacket to cushion her head.”

“The car was pretty smashed up; it looked like someone had taken a big bite out of it,” Geer said. “After he (Britten) got the girl out, she started to wander away but stumbled in the brush trying to get up to the road. Patrick and I helped her up and Pat rolled his jacket to pillow her head — I put mine over her to help keep her warm.”

Turning back to the car, Britten saw another girl trying to climb out the back window.

“She screamed ‘Help me!’” Britten said. “I wasn’t sure the fire in the engine compartment was going to stay out, so I acted quickly. I asked her if she could move her legs. She could. I helped her get out of the window and was about to move her away from the car when Candy yelled at me not to move her farther.

“I had gotten her out onto the trunk of the car,” he continued. “I noticed her nose was bleeding. I stayed with her, talking to her to keep her conscious until the paramedics could arrive.

Britten said he was handed some sterile gauze to help remove blood from the girl’s face. He asked her if there was a number he could call, “like a parent or an emergency contact.”

She said yes.

“As I was talking to her dad, I had to keep my eyes on her,” Britten said. “Her father asked where the accident was and which hospital they were going to. I told him where the accident happened, but I didn’t know what hospital. He asked if he could talk to his daughter. I gently placed my cell phone by her ear; she screamed ‘Daddy, help!’ ”

Britten said it seemed like it took forever for paramedics to arrive, but it was actually only a short time.

“When I heard the sirens, I looked over to her and said, ‘You’re going to be all right.’ “

At that point, Britten said he knew it was time to get out of the way and let the paramedics do their jobs.

“We all worked together to keep the two girls we pulled out of the car awake and warm,” Geer said.

Geer wanted to give credit to his dad for making him the person he is “and giving me the confidence and the strength to stay calm and help others when I can.”

Geer is enrolled in the delayed entry program for the U.S. Marine Corps and will be headed for boot camp after graduation from PHS.

“The guys tell me that the call went really well,” said Allen, the KPFD Division Chief. “Great mutual aid response from Gig Harbor and Kitsap County. The road was only blocked for about 50 to 60 minutes.”

This isn’t your usual Kids’ Corner. That’s because, while this is the season to be jolly, it’s also the season to be responsible for your actions, particularly when you are handling the steering wheel of a moving vehicle.

Because those injured in the accident were all minors, we’ve withheld their names.

On being notified of the Red Cross recognition, Mirenta said, “It makes me feel good to be nominated and I did not think that I would get nominated. I did what I had to do and hope that if I ever get in that situation that they would do the same for me and not stand on the side of road just looking at it.”

“When I first heard about being nominated for hero of the year, I was surprised,” Britten said. “All I know is that I did what I had to in a situation such as the crash. Although our reaction to such a situation was astounding, there are more deserving people out there who have done much greater things to help others. As a first responder at the scene all I need is to know is that the victims are well. Being recognized for our efforts is a great honor. To me being nominated let’s me know that people out there really do appreciate people who help others.”

Geer, now on active duty with the US Marine Corps in training in Hawaii, was unavailable for comment.

Hugh McMillan is a longtime freelance writer for The Peninsula Gateway. He can be reached at 253-884-3319 or by e-mail at hmcmnp1000@centurytel.net.