Piedmont Columbus Regional has named Richard Barfield Jr. with Columbus Fire & EMS as the organization’s First Friday Hero for January.
Barfield came upon the immediate aftermath of a severe head-on collision while off duty. Without hesitation, he stopped his truck and ran directly toward the wreckage to help save seven people involved in the accident.
Upon reaching the first car, Barfield found a young girl trying to crawl out. He carried her to a safe place away from traffic before returning to rescue a small boy trapped in the car. Barfield broke a window to extract the boy and reunite with his sister. He returned to the car where he found the mother of the children partially out of the passenger side and was badly injured. When the mother alerted him that her four-month-old son was still missing, Barfield Jr. crawled back into the wrecked car to find the baby. He freed the infant and recognized an injury to the boy’s head and carried him to safety. Soon after, Barfield was informed the driver, the father, remained trapped, unconscious and not breathing. Barfield immediately cleared debris from the driver’s airway so he could begin breathing again. He then utilized trauma kits to stabilize the driver’s head wound, and when additional first responders arrived, he assisted in cutting through the car to free the pinned driver…