Life-and-death test
January 21, 2010 by Adriana Janovich
Filed under Stories
By LAURA AGUILERA-FLEMMING
EISENHOWER HIGH SCHOOL
Danielle “DJ” Aguilar was on an evening walk with her family when a car zoomed by and she heard an odd popping noise.
The 17-year-old Toppenish High School senior — on vacation in Santo Domingo, New Mexico, last summer — looked around and noticed the car had disappeared. All of the sudden her sister and cousin started screaming, “DJ! Help! Firefighter!”
Sprinting toward them, she realized the car was partly submerged, on its side, in an irrigation canal and was starting to sink.
Aguilar jumped in the water and started to assess the situation, determining the safest spot to stand so she won’t be crushed by the car.
Inside, Aguilar saw a woman in the driver’s seat, an elderly woman in the passenger’s seat and a toddler in the back seat. The little girl’s leg was stuck between her car seat and the car door, and she was screaming, “My leg! My leg!”
“I looked at the little girl to see if she was OK and her eyes were huge because she was in shock,” says Aguilar, who helped pull the elderly woman out of the water and onto the canal bank.
The child’s mom climbed into the back of the car to get her daughter out of the car seat. Once she had extracted her daughter, she handed the child up to Aguilar, who set her on the canal bank safely with her grandma.
By this time, the car was sinking deeper into the water and the mother barely had room to breathe. Aguilar tried to pull open the car door to help the mom out of the vehicle, but the door slipped and smashed Aguilar’s hand.
Finally, they got the door open and Aguilar helped the mother out of the car. The family hugged Aguilar and thanked her. And about 10 minutes later, police, an ambulance and fire personnel arrived.
In front, from left Maria Olivera, 17, Bryan Reyes, 18, Danielle Aguilar, 17, Ricardo Lopez, 17, and Eliseo Galleges, 16, stand for inspection as they do every morning before their class begins at the Yakima firefighting training station.
Six months later, Aguilar remembers the adrenaline rush: “My body was just shaking, and my hand was hurting a bit. It felt good to help save three people.”
Aguilar says she knew what to do because of her training in the firefighting program at the Yakima Valley Technical Skills Center.
She also says she learned something from the real-life experience: She’s physically and mentally stronger than she thought.
Aguilar is one of three girls in her 13-member, YV-Tech firefighting class.
At first, she says, she thought being one of the only girls in the class would be intimidating because the boys would be stronger.
Now, she’s the first captain of her unit, ranking only one spot behind one of her close friends — also a girl — who’s battalion chief.
“I want to show people girls are just as strong as guys,” she says.
Aguilar joined the program because she wanted to help people. Her favorite part of class is being outdoors doing hands-on activities. She also says the program has taught her to be more responsible and organized.
According to Brandon Dorenbush, a 34-year-old lieutenant firefighter and Aguilar’s firefighting instructor, being a firefighter takes leadership skills, integrity, honesty and teamwork.
Lt. Joe Chinco and Michael Schmits, 17, show how a civilian can be rescued with the help of a chair. Danielle Aguilar, 17, second from left, looks on with her classmates.
“You have to be able to work with people and understand them,” he says. “If you’re not willing to work together someone could get hurt.”
Dorenbush also says he believes how Aguilar responded last summer shows maturity.
“It shows her ability to perform under stress,” he says. “She would always put someone before herself.”
Craig Dwight, the 53-year-old director of YV-Tech, says Aguilar’s actions prove she’s not afraid to take a chance. He credits the firefighting program with giving her the confidence to do what she did.
“What I like about it is everyone is treated equal, and everyone has the same expectations,” Dwight says.
Last fall, at YV-Tech’s grand opening for its new building, Aguilar was invited to give a speech about how the firefighting program helped prepare her to handle the situation. It was her first time speaking in public about the rescue.
“She’s very humble about it,” Dorenbush says. “She doesn’t speak of it at all.”
Aguilar stays in contact with the mother from the accident through MySpace. She tells Aguilar how her daughter is doing, and that her daughter still remembers Aguilar as the one who saved her life.
“She is great at what she does,” Dorenbush says. “And she is only going to get better.”
— Laura Aguilera-Flemming is a junior at Eisenhower High School and a member of the Herald-Republic’s Unleashed journalism program for students.
