OCONOMOWOC — Family of an Oconomowoc man who survived Wednesday's fiery explosion on I-94 shares a message of thanks to the people who pulled him to safety.
"If someone hadn't pulled him out of the car, he probably would have burned up," Barbara Yde-Novy said.
Kelvin Yde's grandmother said he was driving to his job as an Air National Guardsman when he was involved in the chain-reaction crash in Racine County.
Yde's grandmother shared a Facebook post with TODAY'S TMJ4 that Kelvin wrote in the hospital saying his recovery will be long and difficult, but he has three men he wants to thank for pulling him from his burning car.
Dramatic footage from the scene along I-94 shows strangers dragging a man to safety. Yde-Novy knew that man was her grandson being pulled from a fiery vehicle she knows all too well.
"That was my old black Pontiac that he bought and that's what he was driving," she said.
Not long after the crash, Yde-Novy got an urgent call from her son confirming Kelvin was one of the victims.
"I was really worried that maybe he was on fire or had some serious burns," she said.
Authorities confirm two people died in the crash. Yde was one of two rushed to the hospital for serious injuries. This is a picture taken of the former stand-out high school wrestler on Thursday.
"I know he has a broken ankle, he spent three hours having surgery on his arm and today he was supposed to have a 4 hour surgery on his hip," said Yde-Novy.
Yde-Novy has yet to see her grandson due to all of his surgeries, but most importantly she knows he will survive. She shared with us this Facebook post written Thursday by the Air National Guardsman himself.
His grandma wants to meet those three heroes too.
"Thank heavens to the people who got him out of there," she said.
The Racine County Sheriff's Department has yet to officially release the names of all four crash victims.
