Saved by a puff of smoke!

By Sarah Schwager
WHEN Warren Pickering stuck his head out of his window to have a smoke six years ago, he wasn’t expecting to be hailed a hero by police.
But in this case, disobeying his mum saved someone’s life.
Warren, then 16, was having a quick smoke before bed when he heard some noise.
He said he thought he had better check on Rod Cowie, who was doing some work on his car in the back shed and had been out there for a long time.
When Warren got out there, he found Mr Cowie trapped underneath his Subaru utility. He had been trapped for more than an hour and a half.
“It was chaos. Both jacks had fallen off the side of the car,” Warren said.
Warren pulled across the block and tackle used to lift motors from cars.
He attached it to the front axle of the car and lifted it off Mr Cowie.
Warren said Mr Cowie tried to get up straight away but fell over so Warren, worried he would go into shock, threw some blankets and rags over him before running back to the house to call the ambulance.
Warren said the helicopter ambulance could not land because of power lines so Warren had to round up the cows out of one of the paddocks to clear some room.
“I was out there running around at that time of night,” Warren said. “Then they landed in the paddock with the power lines, anyway.”
Warren said it was nearly 2am before Mr Cowie was taken to hospital.
Warren said if it weren’t for him disobeying his mum he would never have heard Mr Cowie.
“Mum always said don’t smoke but I bet she’d have been glad,” Warren said.
“But if mum had have let me smoke, I wouldn’t have had my head out of the window.”
Warren, now 23, moved to Kinglake 15 months ago with his fiancee Jo, stepsons Brayden, 13, Jordan, 9, and Caleb, 6, and baby daughter Jhett, 18 months.
He works as a bricklayer and runs a crew of six other bricklayers.
Warren said he still sees Mr Cowie every now and then and when he was about 18 he worked on Mr Cowie’s farm.
He said he does not see him as much now that he lives in Mildura but they still talked on the phone.
He said the last time they talked was only a couple of weeks ago.
“He doesn’t have to thank me for helping him that day,” Warren said.
“It’s one of those things that doesn’t need to be said.”