Schmig rescues two from van

Sometimes things happen for a reason.
That was the case recently when the recycling truck Duncan Schmig was driving broke down in Canby. And because of that, he ended up being in the right place at the right time.
The unassuming 20-year-old from Minneota was collecting recycled products for Olson Sanitation in downtown Canby when his truck broke down. An hour later, a replacement truck arrived and he went about his work, although he was now about an hour behind.
But it was because of that hour delay that Schmig was able to rescue two Canby residents that were unable to escape their van that was slowly filling with smoke following an electrical malfunction in the engine.
Schmig had just returned from lunch around noon and drove his truck behind the Canby Inn and Suites to pick up some cardboard. Once he put the cardboard in his truck, he was about the proceed to his next stop when he noticed a van sitting in the way.
"I saw a silver mini van sitting there like they were waiting for me to cross or something," said Schmg. "I then noticed what looked like steam coming out of the engine so I figured their van had overheated."
But as Schmig drove past the van, he realized there was more to it than his initial appearance."I had my window open and I took a whiff and it smelled like electrical smoke," he noted. "So I drove ahead and parked the truck."
Because of the electrical malfunction, the two people in the 2000 Silhouette van were unable to get out of the van because the locks for the doors and windows were disengaged and the two occupants were unable to locate the manual control button to engage the doors. Driving the van was Angie Ochsendorf of Canby, while her son Kevin Ochsendorf (address unknown) was in the passenger seat.
"When I walked over there, I could see the man starting to kick on the (passenger) windows with both of his feet," Schmig recalls. "So I ran back over to my (replacement) truck to see if there was a hammer or something that I could use."
Schmig grabbed a large tow chain that weighed around 40-50 pounds and returned to the distressed occupants of the van.
"I motioned for the man to move back and I used the hook end of the chain and swung it at the passenger's window," Schmig told. "It bounced off the window a couple times before I put all my weight behind it and it broke through the window."
At that point the engine of the van wasn't smoking too much, Schmig noted.
"After I bashed the window, the man told me the locks weren't working," he said. "The mother used a walker and I didn't know if she had any respiratory problems or anything, so I wanted to make sure I could do whatever it took to get her out right away."
Schmig scurried over to the driver's side of the van and also broke that window with his tow chain. Another man then assisted Schmig and because the door would still not open, they asked the woman for the keys to the van, which they then proceeded to unlock the door from the outside.
"We got her out and calmed her down, while her son got the walker out," Schmig said. "We then moved her a safe distance away from the van. I could then see some flames and black smoke coming out from under the van."
Schmig then called the Canby Fire Department and firemen and paramedics were soon on the scene. There were no injuries and everyone is doing fine.
Schmig had no idea his work day would turn into a rescue mission. But he downplayed the events.
"I'm just glad no one was hurt and no one got smoke inhalation," he replied, when asked if he felt like a hero. "I just did what I was supposed to do. But if my truck hadn't broken down and delayed me an hour, I wouldn't have been there at that time and who knows what might have happened?"