DERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A retired Westmoreland County state trooper is credited with saving the lives of a family whose car crashed and caught fire along Pizza Barn Road in Derry Township.

Investigators said a woman over-corrected a swerve, rolling her car four times, before it stopped and caught fire.

Fortunately for the woman and her two young children, retired state police Trooper Ron Gamble, who lives across from the accident happened, came to their rescue.

"I could smell gasoline and oil as I got up here," he said. "It was smoking, and I was afraid it was going to ignite at any time."

Gamble said he grabbed a fire extinguisher and used it to put out the smoky fire in the engine before the rest of the car burst into flames.

He said at that time, he heard screams and saw a little girl with her arm stuck in a seat belt and a baby boy hanging up side down in his car seat.

"(I) crawled through the back window," said Gamble. "It was broken out. Took her out."

He handed 3-year-old Mercedes to his wife and broke out a window to get to 1-year-old Bentley. Both were scraped up. Gamble then pulled their mother, Tina Rose, to safety.

"It's one of those things you do, you don't even think about it," said Gamble. "You just do it."

Rose, of Blairsville, was flown to UPMC Presbyterian for head, shoulder and rib injuries and is still there recovering.

Gamble spent 27 years in the state police and retired as a corporal.

"I responded the way I was trained to do," he said.

And he said he hopes someone would do the same for his grandchildren.

Gamble also noted that this particular rescue was more physical than any of the accidents to which he responded in his 27 years as a state trooper.

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