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Riverton woman speaks after saving man, pulling him from burning car

Posted at 5:57 PM, Mar 19, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-20 08:23:40-04

RIVERTON, Utah - A group of strangers rescued a man from a burning car Monday morning around 12:30 a.m., near 126th South and 1300 West in Riverton.

Stephanie Dickey just finished her shift at Riverton Hospital when she saw a fire on the side of the road – a car had crashed into a tree.

“As I got closer, there was a woman there on the phone and she was waving," Dickey said.

The woman was trying to rescue a man who was inside the burning car.

“The entire front of the car was on fire,” said Dickey. “She ran up and grabbed him and helped pull him up out of the car. She was amazing.”

Worried the fire might spread, Dickey and the woman dragged the man away from the burning car.

“His sleeve on his hoodie was on fire. We tried to get him to roll so the fire could go out.”

Then, another man driving by pulled over and helped Dickey carry the victim further away from the car in case it exploded. Dickey says the real hero in all of this was the first woman who stopped.

“I kinda wish that I knew her name because she did an amazing, amazing job. She just kept a cool head. She stayed on the phone with 911. She's the one that got close enough to him to pull him out," Dickey said.

Dickey gets emotional when asked what would have happened if she didn’t stop to render aid. The woman who flagged her down wasn’t having any luck.

“She said she tried to wave down three different cars and nobody would stop," she said.  "I can't fathom seeing a woman who needs help and a car on fire and not knowing what's happened to just drive by.”

The victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Unified Police say they are still investigating to figure out what caused the crash.