A Texas man paralyzed from the waist down was saved from his burning car. He unable to thank his rescuer at the time, so he sought her out to offer his gratitude.
According to the New York Post, Dennis Brown’s rental car burst into flames and trapped him inside Sunday.
Mississippi resident Tammi Arrington had been visiting a friend and helping her move into a new home when the fire started.
She looked out the window and saw all the doors were closed and originally believed the car was empty.
She said, “I just happened to see his head move just a little bit from the headrest and then I realized there was someone in there.”
Arrington jumped into action and rushed toward the car.
Brown said she told him to get out of the car. He answered, “I can’t, I’m in a wheelchair.”
Arrington dragged him from the vehicle to safety and waited for the fire department to arrive and put out the flames.
Brown said, “If it wasn’t for Tammi, I don’t know how I possibly would’ve gotten out or how close I would’ve got burned or wouldn’t be here today if not for Tammi.”
He noted that everything happened so quickly that he was unable to get her name. When his family went to the home she was visiting to thank her, nobody was there.
“I didn’t give a proper thank you,” he said. So he contacted local Fox 4 for an interview to find out who saved him.
He said, “I’d like to appreciate her for her heroic act.”
“She went into harm’s way to save me. Dragged me out. I’d like to thank her,” he went on.
Brown’s mother called Arrington “his angel.”
Brown had already survived a near-death experience when he became paralyzed after being shot.
This second experience led him to state, “Life is beautiful, even from a sitting down position.”
Once she was found, Brown told the New York Post he called Arrington.
“The first thing I said was, ‘Tammi, this is Dennis, the guy in the wheelchair,’” he said.
He noted, “We started laughing, man, we just started laughing.”
Arrington said she was glad he was OK and also stated, “Any human response — I think if they saw that, they would have done the same thing.”
Brown intends to take both his mother and his rescuer to dinner the next time Arrington is in town.
