A Choctaw man is sifting through tens of thousands of dollars in damage to his woodworking shop. A fire engulfed the building on Sunday after a driver in medical distress swerved off the road and hit a gas meter outside the shop near Northeast 10th and Henney Road.
Paul Rupe said two passersby ran to his house to warn him of the fire and that a driver hit the building. Rupe said the Good Samaritans freed the victim from his truck before the first responders arrived. “Heard a loud noise,” said Rupe. “Just thought it was thunder.”
That noise was a truck slamming into the Choctaw resident’s metal woodshop building. Rupe said the driver was pulled to safety by two passersby. “I didn’t get his name because he should be recognized for that,” said Rupe.
The truck hit a gas meter that sparked the fire, destroying the shop Rupe built from the ground up after he retired from the Army.
