One minute Steven Bonifer was behind the wheel enjoying a brilliant, blue-sky day; the next, he was driving into a head-on collision with an SUV.
The crack-up left the father of two young children pinned inside his truck, the flames rising from the engine threateningly close.
Almost immediately, three grandmothers on their way to a birthday party and an unemployed salesman stopped to help.
The actions they took saved Bonifer’s life, and on Thursday at Littleton Adventist Hospital, Bonifer thanked them and the emergency workers who responded to the accident.
“These people kept me really calm and made me feel like the accident wasn’t as bad as it really was. They don’t know me from anyone else but to jump in a truck that is on fire with a person who is a wreck is just amazing,” he said.
The date was Jan. 19, and it was Patricia Prince’s birthday. With her as she drove to meet other friends for a birthday celebration were Marilou Foley and Sara Lebofsky.
The women asked that their ages not be published. “We are three tough grandmothers,” Prince said.
Prince saw the collision at Gateway Drive and Wildcat Reserve Parkway, pulled in behind Bonifer’s truck, and the women ran into the thick smoke.
“That is how my birthday lunch began. It ended with a lot of vodka tonics,” Prince said.
As she approached the truck, Lebofsky heard Bonifer screaming for help. His face was pushed up to the windshield, and flames were rising from the engine compartment.
Others who stopped to help gave the women fire extinguishers, and they began unloading them, keeping the flames from eating through the firewall and into the passenger compartment.
James Craft, 51, arrived at about the same time and pried the truck’s door open. The smoke was so thick, he couldn’t see the driver even as he came close to his face. “I told him he wasn’t going to die and kept blowing oxygen into his mouth.”
Bonifer, whose injured legs were crushed beneath the melting dashboard, struggled to pull a knife from his pocket. Prince took the blade from him and sliced the seat belt away from his body.
But Bonifer, 37, a construction superintendent, was jammed too tightly into the truck cab. They couldn’t get him out.
Peter Tremewan, 35, an off-duty member of South Metro Fire Rescue Authority, arrived in time to unload three more extinguishers, bringing the total to seven.
When the last one was empty, he began shoveling dirt onto the blaze. It all happened quickly.
Douglas County sheriff’s deputies arrived and began to help. Then firefighters and paramedics from Littleton and South Metro got to the scene.
“We were sure glad to see the fire department when they rolled up,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Rich Taylor.
The 24-year-old driver of the Ford Explorer was taken to the hospital for observation.
Littleton Fire & Rescue presented the three women and Craft with an award for heroism.
Bonifer, who came to the ceremony in a wheelchair, his legs swaddled in bandages, was taken to Littleton Adventist Hospital with a dislocated ankle, compound leg fracture, crushed heel, broken ribs and other injuries.
He returned home last week and is expected to be walking within three months.
His wife, Nancy Bonifer, 40, attended the ceremony with their children Dillon, 5, and Kylie, 2. “I know it could have been a lot worse, and we are glad to have him home,” she said.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
