Fast Action Saves Home From Truck
Shirley Kemper looked out the front porch of her historic Ridgefield home and saw a runaway dump truck barreling towards her.
“I thought that by the angle on it, it’s just going to take out my bay window,” Kemper said. “I thought, ‘I’m glad my kids are in the back (of the house).”’
But just before the dump truck smashed through the house, contractor Fred Harris saved the day. Harris drove his pickup into the dump truck and the impact diverted the runaway vehicle away from Kemper’s home, police said.
“In my opinion, he saved a serious accident from happening through his quick actions,” said Ridgefield Police Officer Steve Allen. “It would have gone right through the front door.”
“It’s just a blessing and a miracle it didn’t hit the house,” Kemper said. “It really is.”
It all started Saturday morning at a nearby construction site, where Harris’ L&S Contractors of Yacolt was installing sewer and water lines for a 16-home housing development.
Morris Lively, an L&S employee, parked the dump truck on an incline. He was standing outside Harris’ pickup talking to Harris when the contractor realized the dump truck, with 24-foot flatbed trailer in tow, started moving downhill.
“You don’t have much time to think,” Harris said. “You’ve got a split-second to make a decision. I told (Lively) we had to stop it somehow and took off with my truck.”
Harris crashed his truck into the dump truck about 20 feet from Kemper’s home. The dump truck smashed through a fence - passing within inches of Kemper’s home - then tumbled down an embankment before coming to rest in an area where old railroad ties are stored.
Harris’ new Ford pickup suffered severe damage to the right side, but he wasn’t complaining.
“I’m very grateful nobody was hurt,” he said.
Kemper said she was grateful for Harris’ quick thinking.
“I’m calm now,” she said, four hours after the incident. “But you look back now and think, ‘What if?’ “
Her home, which is on the Clark County historic register, was built in 1884 and is known as the Gilbert House. Kemper and her husband are in the process of restoring it.