Jack Nentwig, 90, and his wife, Betty, 92, should thank their stars that they now need a new car.
Their old one, a 1994 Oldsmobile, nearly killed them late last week when it burst into flames as the couple drove to a doctor's appointment in Bloomington, Minn.
Fortunately, Seth Perrier, an Army Reserve sergeant, was close by when Jack pulled the flaming car over. "The only other time I've seen a car go up like that was overseas," Perrier recalled to KARE. "[Jack and Betty] weren't making any attempt to get out, weren't moving."
Perrier and three other strangers ran to the vehicle and pulled the couple to safety. Seconds later, the car turned into an inferno.
"As soon as we got them out, you heard the tires hissing and popping, you heard the gas tank start to go," Perrier said.
"If it was my Grandma out there, either one of them, I would hope to God somebody would stop and help them," he told CNN.
Last year, two 19-year-olds in St. Paul, Minn., rescued Jonathan Lindeke, a man who had a medical emergency while driving. Lindeke lost control of his car while pulling into a garage, leaving him trapped inside while the car -- and the garage-- burst into flames, reports WCCO.
The two teenagers, Jackson Mask and Austin Wark, were awarded a Meritorious Service Award for pulling Lindeke from the burning wreckage. Even better than the award, though? Wark earned the admiration of his grandmother, who now thinks he should become a firefighter.