27 May 2023 , 21:59
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A heroic man pulled two toddlers from a burning car just seconds before it turned into a fireba ll.
Sam Heiler, from Arizona, US, and his wife Melissa were driving for a weekend getaway when they spotted a car on fire in Navajo County.
The 30-year-old decided to pull over after seeing flames from a car, which was carrying a family of four.
The parents of the two girls got out of their front seats and shut their doors, which instantly locked their two girls in the backseat.
Sam said the girls' parents were unable to open the door as the fire started to spread.
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He told Fox News: "The parents were freaking out, screaming and punching the windows with their bare hands, both the back windows in front of the babies."
Sam launched a rock through the front window, breaking the glass to open the doors from the inside and safely rescue the toddlers.
The toddlers had a lucky escapeMelisa said: "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 it broken through.
"All the while, the flames had now spread to completely covering the front hood of the car, and the two- and three-year-old are screaming."
Once the doors were open, Sam helped unbuckle the kids from their seatbelts and brought them up to where the couple pulled over.
Sam Heiler and his wife Melissa spotted the carThe area had no mobile phone service but Sam was able to flag down another driver using a glow stick he keeps in his car.
He asked them to call 911 when they gained signal, which wasn't until 25 miles up the road.
Police and firefighters arrived at the scene but the fire continued to catch fire until an hour later, when it was safely put out.
Shocking footage after Sam came to the rescue shows the car engulfed in flames with only the rear doors where the girls escaped from still open.
Sam had to launch a brick through the window of the carSam revealed: "They had about 20 more seconds until the fire spread from the engine block to the cab.
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"The girls were screaming, the parents were screaming, my wife was screaming—it was bad. When the fire hit the fuel tank it made a legitimate fireball explosion."
Melissa Heiler revealed her husband was going to keep driving after seeing the car pull over.
However, in that moment he decided to stop and it saved their lives.
She added: "But, in that same instant, something came over him, and he felt like he had to stop and see if he could help."