Volunteer Firefighter
Unknowingly Pulls Dying
Daughter From Wreckage On
Christmas Eve ......A volunteer firefighter attempted to save a woman
in a serious car accident on Christmas Eve -- and
found that not only was she dying, but that she
was his daughter. Steve Whitcomb responded to the scene in
Brookline, N.H., where the lone victim, his
daughter Katie Hamilton, was eventually
pronounced dead, according to CNN. An SUV
reportedly rear-ended her and pushed her into
oncoming traffic, where another car hit her head on, police said. As he pulled his 30-year-old daughter out of the
smashed vehicle, he didn't initially recognize her,
police chief Bill Quigley told The Union Leader. The other two drivers weren't injured and nobody
was charged. Quigley said that speed and
impairment weren't factors in the crash, but
"distracted driving" may have been. Hamilton doesn't just leave behind her dad. "I know that she is a young mother," Quigley said.
"It's a sad, sad day for all of us, not just because
it's Christmas Eve." Brookline is a small town of 4,000 residents, and
everyone holds Hamilton and Whitcomb in high
regard. The Nashua Telegraph reports that the two
worked together as plumbers and were close. "You grieve and then you try to put it all back
together," Whitcomb told the paper