Will Henry Foote, pictured at here at the 2010 Pell City Idol contest, survived being pulled into a bon fire Labor Day weekend.

A 19-year-old Pell City man is thankful to everyone who helped him overcome a tragic accident Labor Day weekend.

The Sunday before Labor Day, Will Henry Foote was helping his friend, Eli Weaver, clear some brush at the edge of a pasture off Highway 144.

They had been clearing and cutting wood all day. The pair had been burning the cleared trees and limbs in a drainage ditch out at the end of the pasture to keep the fire contained.

They planned to burn all the old brush and then return later and burn the green timber.

Just before dark the pair returned and began throwing the new growth on the fire. The coals were nearly a foot deep and well suited for burning off the green wood.

Though Will was several feet away and above and away from the ditch, the fire was so hot he had to put his Costa Del Mar sunglasses on to keep the heat from his eyes.

Will and Eli grabbed a seven-foot, 150 pound log and went the throw it into the ditch. When they let go a limb caught Will’s shirt and dragged him into the roaring fire.

“When you’re laying face down in a fire the only thing you worry about is getting out,” Will said. “I manned up and rolled out the best way I could.”

He had landed face down in the fire. Will managed to push out of the coals with his right hand and get clear of the fire.

“I was smoking a little bit and dusting off the coal and ash and soot and it didn’t really hit me how bad I’d been burned until about halfway to the hospital. I knew I needed to get medical attention, but I wasn’t hurting until the adrenalin stopped pumping so much,” he said.

Eli took Will to St. Vincent’s-St. Clair hospital in Pell City.

“By the time I got there I was in so much pain I couldn’t move because I was hurting so bad,” Will recalled. “My buddy jumped out of the truck with me and he was getting me up to the back door and a nurse saw me and helped me in. As soon as I got through those doors they were doing everything they could to help me with pain. They got the medicine to me right away and it got the edge off, but it was still really, really painful.”

His father, David, received a call from Will’s mother, Danielle, and rushed to the hospital.

“When I went into the back door of the emergency room I heard him screaming. You know your own child’s voice. It was the most hideous thing I’ve ever seen… As fast as I went into the emergency care room, I had to leave just as fast,” David Foote said. “I just couldn’t take it. His skin was just hanging off his arms.”

St. Vincent’s-St. Clair put Will in an ambulance and rushed him to UAB, the closest burn unit in the area.

“When somebody looks you in the eye and you can tell what they are talking about it makes you that much more comfortable,” Will said. “The pain was so bad that I would just pass out. They got me to where I could stay alert and they treated me well. I don’t know anything in the medical field, but they had their ‘ducks in a row’ so to speak with their burn unit there.”

Will underwent several skin graphs on his arms, leg and chest and a dermal abrasion to his face to make sure that when it healed there would be little scaring.

The doctors told him that had he not been wearing his sunglasses when he fell in the fire, he likely would have lost his vision, if not his eyes.

His right hand was sustained third degree burns while the rest of his body that hit the fire received second degree burns.

He stayed at the hospital for just over a week and was let out early because his skin grafts were taking and his pain level had stabilized to the point that he didn’t require large doses of medicine.

Four weeks after the accident, Will is finally regaining the movement in his left, partially thanks to his will to return to playing the guitar. His right hand underwent another surgery this week on his right hand and his skin graphs are holding up well.

“I can’t pick up anything with my right hand, it’s just too painful,” he said. “But I can fret the guitar with my left and hand strum a bit with my right. It’s gonna be a bit before I get around to any finger picking or anything fancy with my right hand, but I’m going to get there one day.”

His father said that when Will got home, his parents still had to wrap his wounds several times a day, “and that’s very painful for him. But as of last weekend he wasn’t taking any pain medication. It’s really amazing how well he’s done. He’s not going to have any disfigurement when it’s all over with. I just thank the Lord that he’s not any worse that he is.”

Will said the support from community has been the one thing that he has been overwhelmed with.

“That’s just the most amazing part of this whole ordeal. As bad as I got burned or had to learn the hard way… I didn’t really realize how much the words ‘Southern Hospitality’ means until this sort of thing happened. I’ve grown up in Pell City and know a lot of people in Pell City. Even people who don’t know me are giving in some way—not financially even—through prayer and wishing me well. It’s absolutely Amazing.”

Will had lost his job just ten days before the accident and did not have any insurance. A Boston butt sale will take place Friday from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the Pell City recreation building on 19th street. They will be sold for $25 apiece.

Two accounts were set up to help Will pay for his medical bills, one at Union State Bank and one at Metro Bank in Pell City.