The wife of an Arizona man who later saved two young children from a car that exploded in flames said “divine intervention” caused them to stop to help.
Sam Hyler, 30, was driving Thursday night with his wife, Melissa, to Memorial Weekend vacation in Navajo County, Arizona.
The two were traveling on a highway about 25 miles away in the suburbs of Show Low when the car in front of them, carrying a family of four, caught fire.
Sam initially decided to continue on the road, but quickly pulled over and rushed to help the as-yet-unidentified family.
Describing the incident, Melissa described how “something came” to her husband, describing it as “divine intervention”.
Dramatic footage, filmed minutes after the heroic rescue, shows the black car completely engulfed in flames 30 seconds after Sam rescues the girls.
Flames were coming out of the black Ford’s rear door, in which two young children sat just a short distance in front.
“My husband asked me, ‘Do you smell that?'” Sam’s wife Melissa told DailyMail.com. I said no, but I could see sparks falling on the road. It looked like someone had thrown a used cigarette out the window and I told him what I had seen.
“The truck in front of us started flashing lights and honking its horn to get the attention of the car in front. “
“The car stopped on the shoulder and the truck whizzed by and kept going.”
Melissa said what happened next was “divine intervention” when her husband Sam hit the brakes and ran to the couple’s aid.
She continued: “Agile but cool and rational thinking, Sam thrashed off our break and stopped the car. We ended up passing the sparking car about 20-30 yards.
“Sam opened the door, heard his parents frantically screaming, and rushed back to check on the situation and get to work.
“When Mom and Dad got out of the car to see what the problem was and closed the doors, Dad informed Sam that all the car doors were auto-locked.”
Heiler used a large stone to break the Ford’s windshield and smashed the remaining glass with his hands, trying not to hurt anyone.
Once inside, he managed to unlock two doors and unbuckle two girls, ages 2 and 3, from their seats while their parents pulled them to safety.
Just seconds later, the fire reached the fuel tank and the car exploded.
“The flames had spread to completely cover the front hood of the car, and a 2- and 3-year-old was screaming,” Melissa recalled.
“I was late getting water and a flashlight and watched the scene unfold as I ran toward the burning car.
“We looked at everyone and only Sam got out of the situation with a small amount of blood and a wound that needed to be bandaged from the first aid kit in the car.”
Melissa and Sam believe that divine intervention pulled the car over on Thursday night, and Sam admits his first instinct was to keep going.
Melissa said, “After everything was over and driving to the passenger compartment, Sam’s first intuition was that he wanted to continue on the road like a truck was driving between us and the burning car. Told.”
“But in that same moment something hit him and he felt he had to stop and see if he could help. God’s intervention, there is no doubt in our minds.”
Melissa said people who passed by her car were asked to call 911 about 40 miles from the road because there was no cell phone service in the area.
Reservation police eventually arrived on the scene, and a fire broke out in the area after it spread from a car hours after the incident.
