Ken Wingate pulled and pulled at Joey Johnson, but couldn't get the bleeding man free of his burning car.

Wingate already had helped free one man from another vehicle, but could only watch, helpless, as flames overtook the Augusta firefighter.

"I'll live with it the rest of my life," said Wingate, a Columbia attorney and chairman of Sanford's government waste initiative called the MAP Commission.

"Him struggling to get out, and having no way to do anything, and watching him perish; it breaks my heart."

Johnson, 32, died Tuesday night on a rural stretch of U.S. 1 in Aiken County, Highway Patrol Cpl. Tony Bell said.

Wingate, who lost to Sanford in the 2002 Republican gubernatorial primary, was in Aiken Tuesday evening for a commission hearing at Aiken Technical College. He was headed home around 7 p.m. when he came upon the accident, about a mile from the campus.

Bell said a 1972 Chevrolet pickup was headed toward Aiken on U.S. 1 when it crossed the grassy median and hit a 2000 Dodge pickup going the other way. The Chevrolet landed on top of Johnson's Dodge Stratus, pinning Johnson inside.

"I ran to one car," Wingate said, and he and another man pulled one injured man to the median. Already, he said, fire had erupted from two of the cars.

Then he found Johnson.

"He was badly injured, but very much alive.

"The trunk of his car was already on fire. One young man and I pulled on the handle of the car, but it wouldn't open. We pulled on him but couldn't get him free.

"Something exploded in the trunk. We had to back away, screaming for a fire extinguisher."

Johnson was a firefighter with the Augusta-Richmond County Fire Department. He was returning to Augusta from Voorhees College in Denmark, said Capt. Tommy Cox of the fire department.

Cox said Johnson was a fine employee and a brave firefighter.

"It's always a very traumatic experience to have anyone die," Cox said. "When you work for the fire department, it's almost like a second family. It's very emotional."

Johnson is survived by his parents and one brother.

Bell said there was no word yet on whether charges would be filed in the accident, and it is not known what caused the Chevrolet pickup to cross the median.

The Chevrolet was driven by Thomas B. Hawkins, 29, of North Augusta, Bell said. He and his passenger, James B. Turner, 40, of North Augusta, were taken to the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Turner remained in critical condition Thursday; Thomas Hawkins was released Wednesday, hospital officials said.

The other pickup was driven by Mitchell W. Hawkins, 15, of North Augusta, Bell said. He and a passenger, Walter Yonce, 50, of Johnston, were not injured.

Wingate said he will not soon forget Johnson or the way he died.

"To watch him perish is a helpless, helpless sick kind of feeling. You're speechless. You're panicked. Your adrenaline is running, you're screaming to bystanders to bring a fire extinguisher.

"I was praying that the Lord would intervene."