Car after car drove by the burning vehicle, until the five halfway house residents saw it on their way to work. “I yelled at the guys, I said, ‘We're stopping, we gotta help them,’” one of the men told Inside Edition.
Five men who stepped in to save an elderly couple trapped in their burning car are speaking out about what led up to the daring rescue on the side of a California highway.
Barry, Andre, Jeff, Harry and Scott live together in a halfway house. They’re all dealing with troubled pasts, such as incarceration, addiction and homelessness. All of them have been called lots of things in their lives, but now they are being hailed “heroes.”
The men were heading to work when they came upon the fire on the other side of the road. Car after car just drove by, and no one was stopping to help. That’s when they knew they had to do something.
“I yelled at the guys, I said, ‘We're stopping, we gotta help them,’” Barry said. “And we all jumped out, and I ran and I saw his wife screaming, so I ran, pulled her out.”
There was serious danger.
“He opens the car door, and right then and there, the car explodes. I fall back from the explosion, and Barry just grabs the guy and pulls him out of the car,” Andre said.
Barry suffered burns to his arm, along with the driver, 92-year-old Ken Williamson.
“When I pulled him out, all the skin came off his arm, and I locked onto his wrist,” Barry said.
“It was just weird, godly timing. God wanted us to be there, at that spot, at that moment,” Barry continued.
“There’s no doubt about it, five-ten seconds could have made the difference in two lives,” Jeff said.
The elderly couple’s family tells Inside Edition they are forever indebted to the brave men who stepped in to help.
