Miami drag queen Elaine Lancaster a ‘shero’ for pulling passenger from flaming car
Miami drag queen Elaine Lancaster, about to work a month-long gig in Greece, has become “a Mykonos shero,” according to fellow female impersonator Roxy Brooks.
Early Friday, Lancaster — AKA James Davis — pulled a young man out of a burning car just before the entire vehicle became engulfed in flames.
“I was home in my kitchen. They have rented me a beautiful villa,” said Davis, who with New York drag queens Brooks and Lady Bunny will work the month of August at @54 Club in Mykonos. “The streets are narrow, almost like donkey paths. If you don’t have a very narrow car, like a smart car or a scooter, you can’t get through the road. The road is elevated. From my patio, it’s almost eye level.”
About 1:15 a.m. Friday, Davis saw a car rolling back and forth on the street outside his villa. Inside the small sedan: two men and woman, visiting from Italy.
“I could smell they were burning the clutch,” said Davis, via an Internet call from Greece. “I said to the guy, ‘The car is on fire — I smell it.’ The girl says, that’s OK, OK. I said, ‘No, I see flames.’”
The young woman, driving the car, jumped out. “The guy in the back seat opens the door and gets out of the car,” Davis said. “The guy on the passenger side, he sees fire coming out of the hood. It’s almost like he hypnotized. He’s frozen. He keeps staring at the hood.”
Davis hurried to the street. “I ran up the stairs and hopped over a little wall to get to the passengers side. The window as halfway down. I reached in and pushed his seat belt button. I opened the car door and grabbed him by the arm. He stood up in a daze,” Davis said. “Some people handle stress differently. He snapped out of it in the house and said, ‘You saved my life.’
By 1:44 a.m., “the car was completely engulfed in flames,” Davis said.
“Within minutes the car explodes and is completely engulfed in flames,” Brooks wrote Saturday in a Facebook post. “The guy and his coworkers and the manager of the resort came to the house today to thank her for her bravery. Naturally [Elaine] is too modest to tell you this herself (LOL) honestly everyone is so thankful she is here. … A Mykonos SHERO!”
Only one disappointment: Davis rescued the Italian not wearing Elaine Lancaster’s six-inch heels and big blonde wig.
“I had on a pair of shorts, no shirt, no shoes,” Davis said. “I was dressed as a boy.”
This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 12:04 PM with the headline "Miami drag queen Elaine Lancaster a ‘shero’ for pulling passenger from flaming car."