Grunthal man shrugs off ‘hero’ label

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This article was published 09/07/2014 (3577 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kevin Hildebrand is shrugging off suggestions that he is a hero after he and another witness pulled a driver out of a burning semi-trailer Tuesday afternoon.

Hildebrand’s mind was still racing later that day, only several hours after the two strangers were the first on the scene of an overturned semi-trailer that immediately caught on fire south of Winnipeg on Highway 75 after 1:30 p.m.

If it wasn’t for the two men who freed the driver from the cab of a semi, the driver likely would not have survived.

Hildebrand, 23, did what he thought was the right thing to do, running to the rescue, but he argues he wouldn’t have been able to do anything without the other witness and his pocketknife. The real hero, he claims.

Hildebrand knows how lucky the three of them are, and how poorly this could have gone.

“If we showed up 30 seconds later, it was too late. That witness and me, we were right behind each other and I want to say we showed up at the perfect time,” said the Grunthal resident.

Read Hildebrand’s story in the July 10 edition of The Carillon.