Around 2 p.m. on February 20, a tanker carrying 4,000 gallons of jet fuel hit a guardrail on a ramp on an interstate in Indianapolis, Indiana. The truck exploded into a ball of flames.
As the truck burned and jet fuel spilled down to the highway below, Holly McNally, 35, and her mother approached the scene. They were on their home from the hospital. Just days before McNally had given birth to her fourth child and she was headed home for a change of clothes.
“I saw the actual semi on fire and then looked to the front of the semi and then I see a man on fire, like his head was burning,” Holly said. “I told my mom, ‘I’m stopping and I’m going over there.’ and she’s like, ‘No you’re not.’ I was like, ‘I am.'”
As McNally rushed to the driver’s aid, another good Samaritan was running to help too.
“Only thing on this man’s body were his boots, clothes were dripping off. There was nothing on him. Nothing,” she said.
The driver, identified as Jeffrey Denman, 59, was able to tell McNally and Mitch Navarre, 50, his name and what he was hauling. Then, moments after McNally and Navarre, who is also a truck driver, attempted to carry Denman away from the inferno, the truck exploded.
“Smoke was hitting us,” she added. “There was a part of my brain, everybody’s brain, where you think, ‘When do I cut?’ You know what I mean? ‘When do I quit helping?’ but that never hit me. I couldn’t quit.”
Navarre didn’t quit either. Instead, he took his coat off and gave it to Denman while they waited for medics. He was later taken to the hospital where he was listed in critical condition.
“Without question, those good Samaritans saved this driver’s life,” Sgt. John Perrine with the Indiana State Police said, according to the Indy Star.
“I’m not a hero, I’m just a human with a human heart,” Navarre said.
Holly and Mitch, you are heroes. You saved this man’s life. Thank you for risking your own lives.
Share this to thank them for their bravery.
