Odessa men rescued two after car crash

Three Odessa men, Chris Costlow, Mark Worley and Johnny Walter were going fishing last Sunday morning. They were about four miles west of Othello on Route 24 at 5:30 a.m. when they came upon a head-on collision and were the first ones to arrive on the scene.

According to Costlow, a Cadillac and a white van were involved. The Cadillac was on fire with one occupant. The driver, Andres Alvarado Alamilla, 24, was trapped in the vehicle and the engine compartment was burning. The van had two occupants, a father, Hector Corona, in his 40s, and son, Jose Corona, 18. The son had gotten out of the vehicle and was walking around.

Alamilla was unconscious and wedged in behind the wheel, so Costlow and Worley took off his seat belt and bent the door down in order to pry him out as flames engulfed the rest of the car. They then laid him by the side of the road and called 911. They were working to keep him conscious until the paramedics arrived.

In the meantime, another car had stopped and the driver of that car and Walter were working to free Hector Corona, the driver of the van. He was trapped in the car and appeared to have multiple leg injuries. They freed him from the car and laid him out on the ground to wait for the paramedics to arrive.

Alamilla was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. According to the Washington State Patrol, Corona was taken to Confluence Health in Wenatchee and his 18-year-old passenger, Jose Z. Corona of Othello, was taken to Othello Community Hospital.