CALGARY - Retired Alberta firefighter Les Toews saved two more lives -- the lives of his grandchildren -- before dying in front of his own children Friday evening.
Toews was one of three people killed when two pickup trucks collided head-on just after 6 p.m. on Hwy. 21, south of Three Hills, about 130 km northeast of Calgary.
One of his sons was also in the vehicle -- the other, a firefighter, was one of the emergency responders to arrive at the scene.
The 69-year-old Linden-based firefighter was trapped as both vehicles -- a southbound truck pulling a utility trailer and a northbound truck pulling a horse trailer -- erupted into flames, Sgt. Patricia Neely, of the Beiseker RCMP, said.
"He was trapped but he managed to manoeuvre to reach the children in the back and assist in getting them out the driver's side window to their father, who had managed to get out the other side," she said.
"The grandfather handed the children through the window to the father."
That, friends, is a man.
