Survivor of fiery tanker crash shares his story

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    TRYON, North Carolina (WHNS) — We first introduced you to the wife of the man that was behind the wheel of a tanker that crashed and you couldn’t even see beyond this large cloud of smoke and raging fire.

It happened on I-26 in Polk County back in October. Now less than 3 months later, he’s home.

Charlie still has a long road ahead, but he is just grateful to be alive.

He’s even looked back at the cell phone video captured that day and he says it had to be divine intervention that brought him to where he is today.

“My dad‘s home,” says 4 year old Hannah. She is just happy that her dad is home after a day that changed his life forever.

Charlie can be seen in a viewer’s video walking away from his oil tanker that crashed and exploded just three months ago.

Charlie says, “it was honestly like heavenly intervention. It was like my right foot like someone took my foot and turned it and pushed up my leg I pulled and I climbed out and I got out and I walked in front of the truck.”

After more than 80 days in the hospital, he celebrated as he walked out of the hospital.

“It was my dance of liberation my dance to a new me my dance to a new year,” Charlie says.

And welcomed home by his community, his wife and his two little girls, but now, even as he recovers, his family wants to give back.

Charlie’s wife, Sally, says, “it makes us want to give back in someway we have both agreed that if there is a cause that people are looking to give to them the jms burn center for the burn foundation down there is definitely a worthy cause.”

Charlie says some things as simple as playing with his girls, while rewarding, it’s physically and mentally exhausting as he recovers from serious burns all over his body.

“One thing I struggled with when I was leaving the hospital was how I would be viewed in public, how people would see me and you see the pictures from when I was first in the hospital in my head was the size of a watermelon basketball,” Charlie says, “I was in an induced coma. I still look pretty rough, but compared to what I was doing and what I am now and what you will be and what I will be and how far I’ve come.”

Charlie says, “I am so thankful that I am here. I’m sitting here next to my wife and my kids are upstairs and I have a life ahead of me.”

They asked for two things outside of that. They want to find the first responders and thank them for helping get Charlie home and they dream of a 5k that will raise money for the burn unit in Augusta.

“You examine your life and you review what kind of person you are and set some goals. It was my dance of liberation my dance to a new me my dance to a new year,” Charlie says.

“It makes us want to give back in someway we have both agreed that if there is a cause that people are looking to give to them the JMS burn center for the burn foundation down there is definitely a worthy cause,” Sally says.

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