Fire Chief in Limestone County returns home after suffering life-threatening injuries in a crash

SHILOH, Texas (KWTX) - The fire chief of Shiloh Volunteer Fire Department in Limestone County is finally home after being thrown from a vehicle while responding to an emergency call.

Fire Chief David Snow said he and his son were dispatched for an emergency call one evening in April.

“We jumped in the truck, take off down the road,” he said. “The route we were taking, I’ve taken hundreds of times...I called in on the radio and said, I need a cross street or the nearest landmark. That’s the last thing I remember.”

Snow said he believes his truck came off the black top road and caught the mud, and when he tried to get back on the road, the truck spun around, rolling multiple times end-to-end.

“During that process I got ejected when the truck actually ended up further past me so it continued to roll, I landed face down in the mud 30 feet from the truck,” Snow said.

He said his son, Danny Snow, remained in the car as it was tumbling; however, the passenger side of the car was the only part unscathed from the crash. Danny only had a few scratches, so, as a first responder himself, he jumped into action right away.

“As such I simply did my duty as a first responder,” Danny said.

Snow credits Danny’s actions for actually saving his life.

“[He] held my C spine in line, got my airway open...one of the reasons I’m walking and not paralyzed,” Snow said.

Snow fractured multiple bones including his ribs, vertebrae and femur. He was transported by helicopter to Baylor Scott & White in Waco.

“They landed,” he said. “I hit the back door of the emergency room, a place that I’d been hundreds of times, but it’s a little different. You never expect to go in that way.”

That was only the beginning of the more than a month-long stay in the hospital. Rebecca Snow, his wife, stayed by his side as he was in the ICU and on life support for weeks.

Meanwhile, his community rallied together, starting a GoFundMe and a T-shirt campaign as well as sending meals, cards and flowers.

“It just warms my heart and it touches me,” he said. “I’m going to start crying again just simply because of I love my community. I love my church, I love my family and to see them all come together.”

One week ago, Snow was finally released from the hospital.

“It’s the course of events that you can’t explain it,” he said. “It’s truly a miracle....All the other things that happened with the trauma on the wreck, I nearly died several times in that ICU room, and God kept pulling me out, and it was a miracle.”

Now, he’s walking and returning to the church where he is the pastor of and the fire station. He visited the fire station where the totaled truck was stored to get closure from the accident.

While he is still on the road to recovery, he realizes there would have been no recovery if it was not for his son’s actions that night.

“I’m forever grateful for it,” he said. “He saved my life.”

Snow is currently in outpatient rehab and said he cannot wait to get to work as soon as he can.

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