Man rescued from burning car

Two Teamsters business agents pulled the paraplegic from his car.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Jesus Vega Jr. was more concerned about catching his mother’s dachshund than his car being on fire and getting to his wheelchair.

“I saw flames at the red light on [Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard] across from the Teamsters Hall, then two guys came over and I said, ‘I’m worried about the dog,’” Vega, 38, said Wednesday from his Howland home. “They slapped the wheelchair together and got me out and pushed me out of the way. The firefighters were coming up the street and when I turned around the two guys were gone.”

Vega, called Junior by everyone, said he wanted to thank the Teamsters and will send them a card. In that neighborhood, he said, people don’t stop to help. The area is on the city’s lower North Side.

“I kept saying ‘get the dog, get the dog,’” Vega said, adding the “little wiener dog” is hard to catch once she gets running. “I said if anything happens to her, my mom will have me for lunch.”

The Teamsters, Kevin Koubeck and Mike Waldern, both business agents for Local 377, were just leaving work when they saw Vega’s westbound car smoking at the light and went to help around 7 p.m. Tuesday.

“We saw embers dropping on ground, realized the guy is a paraplegic,” Koubeck said. “We pulled him out, got the wheelchair out of the back seat. The dog had got out and was running the streets; we couldn’t catch the dog.”

Koubeck said the dog eventually jumped into Vega’s lap. The firefighters, he said, did a phenomenal job, arriving in less than four minutes.

Koubeck said he and Waldern left after making sure Vega was OK.

The 6-year-old dachshund, called Butters Lily Scotch, belongs to sheriff’s Sgt. Aurea Montero. Her son, a paraplegic who has hand controls on his car, had been dog-sitting.

“Junior called me, I was leaving work. I hurried up and got there. He said he never saw anybody put a wheelchair together so fast,” Montero said.

“My dog, he’s been taking care of her for three weeks while the bathroom gets redone.”

Montero said she’s thankful for the quick action of the men who went to her son’s aid and will contact them.

Vega said his car, a 1993 Chevrolet Lumina, is his baby but he fears it’s fried. He’d been out driving all day and it ran fine. He got gas, picked up the dog, Butters Lily Scotch, and was headed home when the car caught on fire.

“I wasn’t hurt. When I saw the flames I shut it off,” Vega said.

Vega said he broke his neck in a motorcycle accident on Oak Street in 1990. He doesn’t let his condition stop him. He got married in November and is headed to the Daytona 500 in Florida this weekend.