Cpl. Brian Thomson: Trooper defies flames to pull man to safety

Chris Abercrombie was sitting in his family room at 5 a.m., Sept. 20, when he saw headlights heading toward him.

Seconds later, he heard a crash and his single-family ranch home on Route 1 shook so hard pictures fell from the wall and his front windows broke.

Outside his home, a Ford F150 crashed into a 200-year-old pin oak and burst into flames.

“The truck exploded as soon as it hit the tree,” Abercrombie said.

He called 911 and then ran to the truck, while his wife took their four children to a neighbor's home. The driver, Michael B. Fitzpatrick, was stretched along the front seat of the truck and appeared unconscious.

“I tried to open the door, but it was so hot from the fire,” Abercrombie said.

Within seconds, Delaware State Police Cpl. Brian Thomson arrived at Abercrombie's home, which sits at the entrance of Brumbley's Family Park Campground. A Milton resident, Thomson said he had just started his shift at 5 a.m. and was about a mile away when the call came in for the car fire.

“I saw the truck on fire. It was coming up from the hood,” he said.

At first, Thomson said, he grabbed the fire extinguisher, but when he realized someone was still inside the truck, he went back for his ax.

“I broke the window and called in, and there was no response,” Thomson said. “Then I broke the glass on his side, and he lifted his head.”

Thomson said he was fighting flames from the moment he arrived, but when he broke the windows the flames shot up and intensified. Thomson said he opened the truck door and pulled Fitzpatrick from the vehicle.

A 14-year Delaware State Police veteran out of Troop 7, Thomson matter-of-factly explains how he saved Fitzpatrick's life.

“My primary focus was to make sure no one was entrapped,” he said in his calm, soft-spoken voice.

Others who witnessed the scene give a much more dramatic account.

“There were flames on his legs, and he kept going in to get the guy out. He ran into the fire four times,” Abercrombie said. “It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.”

After Thomson pulled Fitzpatrick from the truck and they were about 15 feet away, Abercrombie said, the truck exploded and flames flew up in the air, throwing contents of the truck into branches more than 20 feet above. Abercrombie said he's not exactly sure how it happened, but a pair of men's underwear now dangles above.

“This guy was so lucky,” said Ralph Brumbley, owner of the campground.

It's not the first time someone has crashed into Brumbley's property. He has planted a row of trees along Route 1, placed six tree stumps – about 3-feet wide and tall – and spent $350 on a boulder intended to stop vehicles from running off Route 1 and onto his property. Judging by the deep tire ruts in Abercrombie's yard, Brumbley said, Fitzpatrick crossed the southbound lanes of Route 1, and hit a dip in the road that catapulted the truck into the air across the northbound lanes.

“He was airborne. He never even touched the northbound side,” Brumbley said.

The truck hit with such force, it thrust Brumbley's pricey boulder 30 feet toward Abercrombie's home and turned one of the log barriers into kindling.

“It hit the log and eviscerated it,” said Carol Brumbley, Ralph's wife.

Carol said the sound of the crash woke her up and she headed straight to the scene to make sure Abercrombie's family was safe.

She said she was amazed by Thomson's heroics.

“That was the thing that blew my mind,” she said.

Standing a short distance from the scene after firefighters arrived to put out the fire, Abercrombie said he struck up a conversation with Thomson without realizing who he was. “I was telling him how this guy was amazing running into the fire to save the guy in the truck and if he saw what he did, and he quietly said, 'Well that was me,'” Abercrombie said. “Then I was like a little kid meeting Hank Aaron.”

Thomson said he had responded to a car fire two months earlier, and he remembered how quickly a car goes up in flames. He said he didn't have to rescue anyone during the earlier fire; the latest fire was the first time he had ever used his ax.

“It happened very fast, but I knew I had enough time,” he said.

Thomson said he credits training at the Delaware Fire School for preparing him for the fire emergency. A New Jersey native, Thomson grew up in Upper Township and graduated from Monmouth University in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. He worked with the Delaware River and Bay Authority police before joining the Delaware State Police in 2002.

“It's rewarding and different,” he said.

There is talk that Thomson will receive a life-saving award, although no details are yet available.

And just like everything else, Thomson will take that in stride. That is, just as long they spell his name with no p. Sharing a glimpse into his keen sense of humor, Thomson recalls how on his first police assignment he mentioned that his name be spelled with no p. When he got his name tag, his name was spelled correctly, but following it was “no p.”

“I wanted to keep the tag, but they didn't let me,” he said with a smile.