Two persons likely owe their lives to another who happened to be “in the right place at the right time” according to Neenah Police. At about 9:40 p.m. Monday night a 911 call was received reporting an accident with likely injuries and responders rushed to the scene on Gillingham Road in Neenah, but they weren’t the first to arrive.
A nearby resident heard the southbound vehicle leave the roadway, hit a fire hydrant, head down an embankment where it struck a tree, spinning violently and came to rest on its side. The resident, 30-year-old Tanner Ater, rushed out in 8-below-zero temperatures, saw the now-smoking car and heard screams. Ater grabbed a fire extinguisher, turning it on the engine compartment, and then helped a passenger climb from the vehicle through heavy smoke. By the time Winnebago County Sheriff’s Deputies arrived, Ater had climbed back on top of the vehicle where he helped a deputy get onto the car, and the the two were able to remove the driver just as the engine reignited and was again engulfed in flames.
Neenah Menasha Fire Rescue put that fire out and the occupants were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment…injured, but alive thanks to Tanner Ater.
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