Sam Heiler and his wife, Melissa, didn’t set out to be heroes. They were simply driving through Navajo County, Arizona for a week-long vacation when something caught Sam’s eye. It was a vehicle, on fire. His first instinct was to keep driving, but the 30-year-old’s decision to stop ended up saving the lives of two young children.
“Something came over him, and he felt like he had to stop and see if he could help,” Melissa told Fox News.
There were two people outside of the burning vehicle, punching the windows with their bare hands. Apparently, the parents had exited the car and the doors had locked when they shut the doors. Their toddler daughters were trapped inside.
“They had about 20 more seconds until the fire spread from the engine block to the cab. The girls were screaming, the parents were screaming, my wife was screaming-it was bad,” Sam said. “When the fire hit the fuel tank it made a legitimate fireball explosion.”
Sam began throwing rocks at the windows.
“Dad followed suit, but from the panic, attempted to throw rocks at the back windows where the girls would have been covered with glass and a heavy rock had broken through. All the while, the flames had now spread to completely cover the front hood of the car, and the two- and three-year-olds are screaming,” Melissa added.
Finally, they were able to break open a window and open the doors. Sam helped remove the girls from their car seats and get the girls to safety.
No one had cell phone service on the remote road, but Sam was able to flag down another driver using a glow stick that he had in the car. Emergency personnel were notified once these drivers were able to regain service, which was about another 25 miles up the road. Authorities eventually arrived on the scene to help the parents and the two girls.
