The alarm at Rural Metro’s Corryton Station 33 sounded at approximately 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, February 25, 2025. A caller reported a cement truck was “turned over” on its side on East Emory Road.

David Dragan

Firefighters David Dragan and Hunter Mitchell headed out in Engine 33, knowing the station was less than a minute from the accident. When they were 100 feet from the accident, they knew it was not a cement truck. Dragan slammed on the brakes. Heart rates accelerated. Everything changed. It was a propane truck carrying close to 2,000 pounds of liquid propane, a highly explosive and potentially deadly situation. Evacuations within a one-mile radius began.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) reported the tanker had overturned on E. Emory Road near Foster Road and that the driver was driving west on East Emory and passed Corryton Road when one of its front tires went off the edge of the road. THP said the driver overcorrected and the truck went across both lanes before it hit the shoulder and rolled over.

Hunter Mitchell

Dragan, 42, is a Rural Metro engineer who has been a firefighter for 20 years. He took charge. Young firefighter Hunter Mitchell, then 20, is in his third year at Rural Metro. Experience and training told Dragan they had to get water onto the truck as fast as possible. The nearest fire hydrant was too far away, so they laid hoses and started pumping the engine’s 750-gallons onto the fire within minutes. The immediate job was keeping enough water on the tanker to avoid a “boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion” – or BLEVE – which would have been catastrophic.

For about 10 minutes Dragan and Mitchell were alone close to the truck. Then the crew from Station 34 on Tazewell Pike arrived and perhaps 20 minutes later Station 25’s crew arrived and connected their big hoses to a hydrant at the intersection of E. Emory and Corryton roads to put additional water on the truck.

It’s safe to say that an explosion would have claimed the lives of Dragan and Mitchell, being so close to the truck. Once back at Station 33 around 6 p.m. Dragan thought to himself: “Wow, that was intense.” He later added that a BLEVE “would have taken out our station too as well as our lives and everyone working at the scene.”

With water pouring down on them, he and Capt. Andrew Fizzano from Station 34 walked to the back of the truck to close the leaking valve and shut down the fire (see VIDEO: 

 

Once that danger was neutralized it took another five to six hours to offload the remaining propane into a second truck.

“I had quickly sent my wife and the kids an ‘I love you’ text just before the captain and I went down range to shut the valve off,” Dragan said. “Once we had the valve shut off the dopamine wore off and it all started to sink in about what could have just happened.”

As for Mitchell, here’s what went through his mind. “We pulled up pretty close and I said ‘This is a whole lot worse than cement!’ It didn’t hit me until later. In the moment you get off the truck and do your job. It’s what we’re trained to do. We were out of water when Station 34 showed up to help. We got lucky. It could have been catastrophic. We got really lucky.”

Dragan and Mitchell are the heroes in this story. So is Capt. Fizzano, known as “Fizz.” Dragan added: “It took us maybe five minutes to get that damaged valve turned off but it seemed like an hour or two.” Once the fire was out the truck was righted and the off-loading transfer process of the 2,000 gallons began.

“Without the quick actions of the initial arriving crew of Dragan and Mitchell, this incident could have resulted in huge property losses and many casualties and certain death!” said Rural Metro Battalion Chief Matthew Clift, who was in charge of the incident.

Dragan also praised fire investigator Jerry Glenn of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. “Because of the risk we needed to evacuate a one-mile radius of the area just in case and I didn’t have time to do that. Jerry Glenn showed up and took control for us and got it done,” Dragan said. “It was really, really appreciated what all he did.”

And about these two heroes.

First Dragan, who was reared in Farragut and is a 2001 Farragut High School graduate. Immediately following the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving for four years. He attended the Navy Hospital Corps School and was assigned to the U.S. Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and became a field combat medic. Next came two tours in Iraq. When he was at Farragut High his father was the senior enlisted man for the ROTC.

This emergency services/ medical work runs in the family. His wife, Ginger, is a nurse manager in Morristown and their 18-year-old son, Bradford, just became the family’s second firefighter working for Rural Metro at Station 28. They also have two daughters – Brooklyn, 14, and Brianna, 5. They are loving life on their 20-acre Jefferson County farm with their donkeys, chickens, rabbits and Miniature Highland cows.

He’s a busy guy. Dragan also is the agency leader of its Wildland Fire Task Force Team and its 50 members. He is an EMT, a fire officer and hazardous materials technician. Dragan has certifications in vehicle rescue, confined space, water rescue, trench rescue and rope rescue. He’s also studying online at Penn State University to earn a degree in advanced emergency management with a minor in meteorology.

Mitchell, who turned 21 last Wednesday, and was reared in Cedar Bluff, joined the Rural Metro Explorer Post when he was 14. After graduating from Hardin Valley Academy in 2022 at age 17, he enrolled at Roane State Community College and passed an accelerated EMT (emergency medical technician) course. Then he was off to the Tennessee Fire Service and Codes Enforcement Academy in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, for three months and 400 hours of training. “I loved it,” he says. “Best thing I’ve ever done.”

He was hired by Rural Metro as a firefighter in May 2023 and has been at Station 33 for a year. He’s now taking driver training and is a member of Dragan’s Wildland Fire team. His interest in this career began at Rural Metro’s Fire Science Program at the Byington Solway Career and Technical Education Center in Karns.

He proudly refers to himself as “a first generation” firefighter. His father, Mark, is disabled and his mother, Jodi, is a nurse professional supporting dialysis patients in their homes. Mitchell is the middle child and has four siblings. “Mom and Dad are my biggest supporters in doing what I love,” he said. “Fire science really fascinates me.”

This call, Mitchell said, was truly educational. “Offloading propane, grounding the vehicles, keeping the water on the truck, doing it all in full gear … stuff I never thought I’d be doing,” he said. “I learned so much. Watching us all working together and being a part of it all. We even had John Galyon come and help. He’s a reserve firefighter who happened to be close by.”

Rural Metro Chief Jeff Devlin also heaped praise on these two heroes:

“Dragan and Mitchell are both a classic representation of the highly trained personnel who serve the citizens of Knox County. Protecting our community is what we do.”

And this time, Dragan and Mitchell were front and center in the protection business on this critical call response.

Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email him at the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562.

Our Town Hero is sponsored by Aubrey’s Restaurants.

KnoxTNToday’s goal is to inform, uplift and entertain. Send stories or comments to news@knoxtntoday.com.

Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook and Instagram.  Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our Free Newsletter.