Barberton couple rushes to help Norton car fire victim

PHOTOS SUBMITTED BY GRANT GRATTON

Ted and Jen Rogofsky rush to help an accident victim in Norton Center.

A paramedic talks to the shaken driver while she rests in a chair brought by another bystander.

Ted Rogofsky describes what he’d seen to paramedics at the scene of a car accident/fire in Norton Center.

The shaken driver of a burning car rests in a chair brought by a bystander.

By BOB MOREHEAD
BGNN senior staff writer

NORTON  A Barberton couple slammed their car in park and rushed across the street a little before noon Oct. 7 to yank a dazed woman from a burning car in Norton Center.

Grant Gratton, from West Virginia, was visiting his friends Ted and Jennifer Rogofsky, of Franklin Avenue, and they were driving through Norton at the time.

“We were driving on Cleveland Massillon Road in front of Acme and it seemed like a car was having trouble, like car trouble, coming out of the parking lot,” Jennifer told BGNN. “It shot across the street and hit a Volkswagen Beetle and kept going until it got into the Chipotle parking lot.”

Gratton said Ted jammed his car into park, exclaimed “We gotta get her out of there” and both Rogofskys bailed out of the car and ran to the now burning car.

“She looked a little dazed,” Ted said.

“We opened the door and we each got on a side of her and got her out,” Jennifer said. “Someone brought a chair and we sat her down in it. She was very worried about her wallet and phone in her purse so I ran back to the car, leaned over her seat, did a quick look to see if there was anyone else, like a grandchild or a dog, in the car, grabbed her purse off the floor and brought it to her.”

By this time, units from the police and fire departments had arrived and Jennifer called the woman’s daughter for her and the couple, whose car was obstructing traffic in the busy intersection, moved on.