Warren Gervais recognized for saving young driver

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Warren Gervais doesn't think of himself as a hero, but that's what a lot of people are calling him these days.

On the morning of Jan. 9, Gervais was driving from his home on the Kawacatoose reserve to the Wascana campus of the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) where he teaches Native studies, when he came across the scene of a collision involving a car and a backhoe.

"As I approached Regina I notices debris on a highway and I realized an accident had happened . . . I moved into the ditch, and saw a vehicle in flames in the back of a backhoe," he said.

He left his own children in the car and ran out to see if he could help. "I was concerned with the person that was in the vehicle, for their safety, because nobody else was doing anything," he explained.

"I jumped out of the vehicle, asked the individuals who were standing there watching the vehicle burn what happened quickly."

He was told that the driver was still inside the car.

Gervais then ran to the car and pulled the driver, 16-year old Ciara Christoph out to safety.

"She hit the vehicle at about 120 k. She's lucky to be alive right now actually," Gervais said. "The only part of the vehicle that wasn't destroyed was in around her.

"Her boot was melted to the floor, and her pantleg was already in the flames. She'd been in the vehicle for approximately a minute before I got there. The car was in full flames. The whole vehicle was filled with smoke. When I opened it, windows were already black."

As the emergency team arrived, Gervais helped get the girl into the ambulance.

Gervais' children-Warren, 6, and Alicia, 15-were in his car, watching. "My son was scared. He thought that everything was gonna blow up because of the amount of flames and fire that was already happening with the vehicle and the tractor.

"My daughter didn't know what to think. She was just watching in awe," he said.

"That really impacted me that evening, the fact that they were watching and had the vehicle blown and dad would have been dead, live on camera for them. That kind of blew me away at night. I realized that situation later."

Gervais and his wife had smudged before leaving home that day, he said, because his wife was going away for a month. Usually Gervais goes to sweat lodges on Sundays and smudges only then.

"In my own mind I just realized 'Yes, the grandfathers were watching over me on that day'," he said.

The Aboriginal Students Association at Wascana campus recognized him at a ceremony a week later. Gervais received a certificate of commendation and a jacket.

"The media has just been going crazy and so I've been getting e-mail from people across North America, actually, in regards of this situation. It's really kind of weird.

"There was a burning vehicle and I guess I pulled her out of it. People are saying I'm a hero now," he said.

"Heroes to me are Spiderman. I just did what needed to be done what other people didn't choose to do."