TURBOTVILLE - When Amish farmer-contractor Hosea D. Hostetler and his wife Ada heard the crash outside their home, he quickly got on his cellphone and called 911.
"It sounded like a gunshot, just a big boom. We jumped up," Hostetler said.
A van with an adult and three children, and a car with an adult and two children collided head-on about a half a mile south of here, on Route 44 about 12:45 p.m. Friday, state police said.
Hostetler said smoke was pouring from the car's engine compartment.
"There was a lot of smoke coming from the vehicle. I gave 911 my address and told them 'I got to go. The vehicles are starting to burn,'" Hostetler said.
He quickly grabbed two fire extinguishers, but they didn't work.
So he started carrying buckets of water to the car and began pouring water on the flames with the help of neighbor Ray Hoover.
An unidentified passerby stopped and also helped carry buckets of water to the wreckage.
While the two children in the burning car, both boys ages 3 and 5, were quickly removed, the woman, identified by police as Erin Skeans, 27, of Turbotville, remained pinned in her BMW sedan unconscious.
"Another 30 seconds and I don't think we would have reached her in time," Hostetler said.
With his wife helping fill the buckets, Hostetler believes he ran nearly a dozen times back and forth with water before the flames were put out.
"If we had to, we would have ripped that door off to get her out of the car. However, we didn't have to," Hostetler said.
Fire officials and police are crediting the actions of the three men and Hostetler's wife with saving Skeans' life.
For an unknown reason, Skeans' southbound car crossed the center line and struck a van driven by Kristy McNett, 34, of Watsontown, police said.
McNett, along with her passengers, two girls ages 3 and 7, and a 10-year-old boy, suffered moderate injuries. All four were already out of the van when firefighters arrived on the scene, David Brown, assistant fire chief for the Warrior Run Area Volunteer Fire Co., said.
Two medical helicopters dispatched to the scene landed in nearby fields, Brown said.
After she was extricated from the car, Skeans, and one of the boys in her vehicle were flown to the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville to be treated for major to moderate injuries, Brown and police said.
Skeans was reported in critical condition, a nursing supervisor said Friday night.
The other boy in her car, along with McNett and the children in her vehicle, were all taken by ambulances to Geisinger. McNett was reported in serious condition, the nursing supervisor said.
Because police do not release the identities of minors involved in crashes, in was impossible to determine the medical conditions of the children.
Volunteer fire police detoured traffic around the crash until state troopers completed their on-scene investigation.
