news

To Patrick Riley

May 26, 2023 | 10:15 PM

An Arizona man heroically rescued two young girls from the back of a burning car on the side of a highway just before it exploded.

Sam Hyler, 30, told Fox News He was traveling with his wife on a remote Navajo County highway to a Memorial Day weekend destination when the engine of the car in front of him caught fire.

Both cars stopped and Heiler said the parents of the two young children jumped out of the front seat. But when they closed the door behind them, the car instantly locked, making it impossible to get the kids out of the backseat.

“The parents were screaming in panic and punching the windows with their bare hands, both the front and back windows of the baby,” Heiler said.

But the blow to the glass was in vain.

“I had about 20 seconds left before the fire spread from the engine block to the cab. The girls were screaming, my parents were screaming, my wife was screaming. It sucked.”

Realizing that he needed to act quickly, Heiler picked up a rock from the side of the road and threw it at the front window, breaking the glass so the door could be opened from the inside.

“[The kids’ dad] The girls followed suit, but panicked and tried to throw rocks at the back window. The girls were covered with glass, and if it were to break through, heavy stones would have flung. In the meantime, the flames have spread all the way to the front bonnet of the car, and the two and three-year-olds are screaming,” Hyler’s wife, Melissa, told Fox.

When the door opened, Melissa said her husband unbuckled the girls and helped their parents out of the car. They all backed up to Hyler’s car, which was stopped about 30 feet away.

“then, fire in the fuel tank It caused a legitimate fireball explosion,” Heiler recalled.

Dramatic footage after the explosion shows the vehicle blazing on the side of the road and completely engulfed in flames.

Sam Hyler said there was no phone service where they were, but he used the psyllium in his car to alert another driver. He asked the driver to call 911 when he could get service again. It was about 40 miles away.

Heiler said reservation police eventually arrived on the scene.

Over the hours following the incident, ignition occurred in an area that extended from the vehicle.

Melissa Hiler told Fox her husband’s first reaction was to just keep driving after the car first stopped.

“But at that same moment something hit him and he felt he had to stop. see if he can help”

“God’s intervention is beyond doubt in our hearts,” she added.