2 heroes risk life to save soup kitchen manager after firey crash

SNN PHOTO / CRAIG BURDICK A soup kitchen manager died Friday morning when her car was rear-ended in front of Wal-Mart near U.S. 301. The driver that hit her is charged with DUI manslaughter.

Woman killed in fiery crash

By HALLE STOCKTON
Published: Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.

MANATEE COUNTY - Two witnesses fought flames spurting out the back of a car that was crumpled by an alleged drunken driver in a rear-end collision that killed a local soup kitchen manager around 6 a.m. Friday.

One man reached into the car to check for the occupant's pulse and felt nothing, while the other used a fire extinguisher from their Waste Management truck to douse the flames.

The two then smashed the window and cut off the 77-year-old woman's seat belt to remove her because the blaze continued to flare.

"We weren't sure if she was gone," said Charlie Hall, a driver for Waste Management. "And even though she was, I didn't want that lady to burn up because that would have been more horrific for the family."

Hall and co-worker Lorne Hancock were two of the first people at the fiery accident on State Road 70 and 30th Street East -- a busy intersection of retail hubs on the biggest shopping day of the year.

A 20-year-old Bradenton woman was the driver of the midsize sport-utility vehicle that plowed into the rear of the elderly Bradenton woman's car, Florida Highway Patrol said. Both vehicles were headed west in front of the Wal-Mart.

Mary DeLazzer -- the manager for more than 20 years at Our Daily Bread soup kitchen in the 1400 block of 14th Street West -- died at the scene. She was most likely on her way to the kitchen when she was hit, a friend said.
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