Life?saving decision honored
by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor
The heroic efforts of a young lady from Posen were honored December 15 by Posen Area Fire & Rescue. Tina Mulka was invited to a dinner at the Route 65 Diner but wasn?t told she was going to receive a plaque for life-saving decisions she made September 18. Mulka and her friend Aleaha Reed were on their way to a Posen High School volleyball game when the 1999 Outback Limited Edition Reed was driving went into the ditch and overturned on its roof and started to smoke. Mulka got a dazed Reed and herself out of the vehicle through a smashed passenger window before the vehicle became fully engulfed in flames. Reed originally wasn?t moving and was still strapped in by her safety belt.
Mulka unbuckled her and dragged her through the opening. According to Burke Wozniak, who has been fire chief for more than 40 years, he cannot recall the last time a citizen received an award.
?We are happy things ended the way they did,? said Wozniak, ?because right after they got her out, the whole car caught fire.? Mulka said, ?I think it is pretty cool. I wasn?t expecting it, so it is pretty amazing.? Mulka has the plaque hanging in her room at home. ?I?m just glad to be alive and that there were no broken bones or paralysis,? she said. ?Nothing could have changed what happened except for Aleaha being thirsty and wanting to go to E & T?s, because that is the reason we took the detour,? said Mulka with a huge grin. ?We were going to go straight to the school but she wanted a Sunkist.?