Remembering When
by
Jerry Person
Huntington Beach City Historian
Dedicated to the people of Huntington Beach
Risking their Lives for a Stranger
If you had been watching TV, listening to radio or reading of the fires that blanketed Los Angeles and how firefighters, neighbors and complete strangers were helping rescue people and for this week we will learn how a rescue happened in Huntington Beach many years earlier.
Acts of heroism are anything but rare to the residents of Huntington Beach and we'll learn how a father and son along with a California Highway patrolman risked a blazing inferno to save the life of a young sailor.
Seventy-two years ago Pacific Coast Highway did not have the heavy traffic at night that we have now and it was not unusual to see the highway deserted late at night to traffic.
One of those nights Loys R. Mills was driving along our coast highway in a large lumber truck. The road was dark as pitch and just after 10 p.m. on Wednesday, October 8, 1952, little did Mills know of how the next few minutes would alter four lives forever.
A young sailor, Roy R. Delane, from San Diego was traveling through our town on the same coast highway. Delane was on leave from his ship, the USS Bremerton, as he neared 15th Street and Pacific Coast Highway, his car for some reason crashed into Mills' lumber truck.
The accident sent lumber flying in all directions on the highway and if it had been daytime more serious injuries could have resulted.
By chance California Highway Patrolman Lloyd Groover was patrolling the coast highway from Seal Beach to Huntington Beach south and as he neared 18th Street he heard the sounds of a crash just ahead of him and he stepped on the gas to get to the scene.
Huntington Beach residents John Wigmore and his son John Jr. also heard the crash and hurried over to help and when Groover and the Wigmores arrived at the scene they found lumber strewn all over the ground.
They spotted what was left of Delane's car, a mass of bent steel and smoke pouring out from its insides. They could barely see the car's driver because of the smoke coming from under the car's dashboard.
The three men found Delane conscious, praying to God and pinned under the steering wheel and that's when they noticed the strong smell of gasoline coming from the car.
Under the beam of Groover's headlights they could see gasoline running out from under Delane's car and unto the roadway and without a thought to their safety, the three men began their rescue of a stranger from a burning car.
Should a spark from the flames above catch the gasoline below then all would have burned to death.
Patrolman Groover tried to open the driver's door but found it was jammed. He went around to the passenger side and was able to open that door as gasoline continued to pour out as the seconds passed and then turning into minutes.
They found that Delane had two broken legs as they attempted his rescue and as the men's hearts beat faster another problem developed. Because of the accident, Delane's feet were wedged between the floorboards and bent car's body.
The driver kept pleading to leave him and save themselves as the heat was becoming unbearable, but the three continued without a second thought of danger to themselves.
Groover cut the laces of Delane's right shoe and pulled his foot out, but his left foot was so wedged in that the men had to cut Delane's shoe apart to get his foot out. All this time Delane continued telling the men to get back to safety as the flames continued skyward but the gasoline still didn't catch fire.
The air around the men was getting hotter and hotter, but at last they were able to pull Delane from that fiery furnace that once had been his car. Gasoline now saturated about 20 feet of pavement under the car and was spreading out fast.
By now the Huntington Beach Fire department had arrived at the scene and it was quick work for them to put out the fire and to keep the gasoline from catching fire.
Delane's prayers were answered that night and all four men cheated death in what seemed like a lifetime in those few heroic minutes.
Delane was transported to the Naval hospital in Long Beach where he recovered from two broken legs and a broken hip. Mills and Groover returned to their work.
As for John Wigmore and his son, Huntington Beach awoke the next morning to find our town had two new heroes in its heart.