An alert Lebanon, TN waitress saved a truck driver from burning to death in the cab of his big rig before dawn last Tuesday morning.

Phyllis Banfield, who’s been waitressing at Uncle Pete’s Truck Stop for nearly 23 years, had just pulled into the truck stop on Sparta Pike for the breakfast shift when she spied something out of the ordinary across the road in the parking lot of Four Winds Restaurant at I-40 Exit 139.

“At 4:52 a.m., I saw a little fire over there and thought it was somebody burning garbage,” Banfield said. “And it seemed to be progressing. Then I saw it was hay on back of the truck. I got on the phone with 911.

“There were seven or eight people standing around watching. I went across the road and beat on the door, and the guy looked out and I told him, ‘The truck is on fire. Get out! Get out!’

“I still had the phone in my hand and was talking to 911. I told them, ‘You better come over here!’ The guy got out in his underwear, and then he jumped back inside to get his pants on and got back out in a couple of minutes. He lost everything in the truck but his pants, shirt and shoes. The cab and load of hay were totaled.” 

Trucker Matt Ramsey of Rutledge in East Tennessee briefly shared his close call with death, saying, “I pulled over here about 1 o’clock (in the morning) with a load of straw. I went to sleep. A little before 5, she (Banfield) saw the load was on fire. She woke me up. I’d say she saved my life. I might have woke up. You never know.”

Recalled Banfield, “I’d say after he got out, seven minutes later everything was burnt to a crisp. He came over here just a little while ago and said, ‘Thank you for saving my life this morning.’ ”

Authored By:

Darin Williams