In Wake County NC last week 24-year-old Brett Baker was driving home from the gym when an SUV nearly clipped him in an aggressive passing attempt. He tells My Daily Record that "I thought what a jerk".
Moments later the SUV slid off the road and hit some trees. Brett pulled over to see if they needed help. He heard cries for help so he called 911. Then the vehicle caught on fire. He dragged a female passenger out and then grabbed the driver who had 2 broken legs and was already on fire and dragged him out and threw himself on top of the fire to extinguish it.
Captain Sal Mercogliano of the Northwest Harnett Volunteer Fire Department had high praise for Brett! “I can tell you for a fact, if he did not intervene by the time we got there, if that patient couldn’t get out of the car, he would have died because the car was fully involved (in fire),” .
Trooper Christopher McIntosh says the driver has been charged with numerous offenses but will be recovering at the hospital for the foreseeable future..
Capt Sal had come into contact with Brett before, but the two of them didn’t realize it in that moment. Then Brett's mother came to the scene and Sal told her how her son saved the man’s life by pulling him from a burning car. Well, that is unbelievable. He almost died in a fire.’”
Brett Baker was 7 years old when his family’s home on Rawls Church Road caught on fire around 3 a.m. Jan. 5, 2009. Sal said “I remember the fire. …the boy narrowly got out of the house. He came down the steps just before the fire took over everything. I remember giving him oxygen”