With seconds to spare, two strangers pull a woman from a burning car, and we are all reminded that we can be heroes.
My husband is a firefighter. On a daily basis, when I think about the work he does, I am blown away by the risks he takes in order to save other people. Seriously, the men and women he works with blow my mind. They are special, for sure. However, they are not unique. Most of us, I think, when given the opportunity to be heroes, will do just that. But we are rarely given the opportunity.
So watch this. Two people, who didn’t know each other, risked their own lives to pull someone else they didn’t know out of a burning car. Within seconds of it happening. No time for thought, no time for anything, it just tapped that deep-inside human instinct to help each other out.
This happened last night, in Seattle, as captured by KIRO 7 news. A woman’s car was clipped by a semi, she was pinned, and two strangers – who saw flames – went in, worked together, and in a matter of seconds saved her life. Which they were able to do largely because they didn’t hesitate, which would have given the fire time to engulf the car, and make it impossible for them to save her without truly risking their own lives.
Things like this confirm my belief that when you strip it all away, when you take away motive and thought and any rational process, we will help each other. While I don’t ever wish this kind of terror or tragedy on anyone, I wish we could find ways to be this good, more often.
The kicker, one of the guys who saved her lost his own son just one month ago. And as he so beautifully points out at the end of the clip, the only thing we really have in this world are the relationships we form with each other.
Let’s go forward and help each other, in large ways and small. Life is just better when we’re in it together.
