Two Strangers Pull 73-Year-Old From Burning Truck

Steve Howell was heading home to Bucksport, South Carolina on Saturday afternoon with a lawnmower in tow when his trailer started swaying. Within seconds, the 73-year-old lost control of his 1977 Ford truck.

"The truck spun around and did a 180 and headed for the ditch," Howell said. The vehicle flipped, dislocating both his shoulders and one hip.

Trapped upside down and unable to move his arms, Howell watched smoke pour from under the hood. The smoke quickly turned to flames.

"I knew if I didn't get out I was going to die," he said. "I could not move my arms. I was totally helpless."

As the fire crept closer to the fuel tank around 5 p.m., Howell feared the worst. With no way to escape and flames growing, he began to pray.

Then he looked up and saw blue sky through the driver's side window. Two men he'd never met were staring down at him.

The strangers didn't hesitate. They pulled Howell through the window and carried him to safety just before the flames engulfed the entire truck and began spreading to the nearby woods.

"We were strangers. They didn't owe me a favor," Howell said. "But out of the goodness of their heart, they risked their life to pull me out."

Emergency crews arrived shortly after, but the most critical rescue had already happened. The two men had given Howell his life back.

Sunny's Take

In a world where it's easy to keep driving or assume someone else will help, these two men ran toward danger instead of away from it. They saw a stranger in trouble and made an instant choice that most of us hope we'd make but pray we never have to.

Howell has no doubt about what saved him that day. "God sent them along at the right time at the last minute, or I would not be here today," he said.

Sometimes the difference between tragedy and miracle is simply someone who refuses to look away.