By Jerzy Shedlock

The Columbian

Authorities say a Clark County resident saved a family of four from a car fire in rural Kansas on Monday.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office shared an account of the heroic actions of a 29-year-old Vancouver resident provided by the Sheridan County, Kansas, Sheriff’s Office.

Dispatchers in Sheridan County got a report Monday around 11:50 p.m. of a motor vehicle fire on Highway U83, just north of Selden, Kansas.

Firefighters responded and found a car fully engulfed in flames, according to the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office.

An initial investigation determined that Vancouver resident Yevgeniy Lomakin was northbound on the highway when he spotted flames billowing from the undercarriage of a Pontiac Grand Am, driven by Shannon Harris of Colby, Kansas, authorities said.

Lomakin stopped when he saw no one around the vehicle. He looked into the car and saw an adult sleeping in the driver’s seat and three children — ages 3, 6 and 10 — who were also napping inside. The driver of the Pontiac had pulled over because they were tired. Harris and the kids were asleep in the vehicle when the fire began, according to the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office.

Lomakin “started pounding on the windows to wake the four people inside. Lomakin woke Harris and then safely removed two of the three children from the vehicle. Both Harris and the oldest child safely removed themselves from the vehicle,” authorities said.

Lomakin, Harris and the children took shelter in Lomakin’s pickup truck parked a safe distance from the fire across the road before calling 911.

The group was checked out by medics a short time later. No one suffered any injuries.

The cause of the fire is unknown, deputies said.

“It is Good Samaritans like Lomakin that deserve to be recognized for his quick thinking, actions and heroism,” said Sheridan County Sheriff Brandon Carver.