Jesse Iwuji saving the world

Jerry920 sends us a link to the story of NASCAR driver and Navy Lieutenant Jesse Iwuji who rescued a family from their burning mini-van;

He was cruising through the Grapevine, California, area on Interstate 5 and noticed a minivan stopped on the side of the road. He noticed the family. He noticed a “small little fire, like a couple of candles or so” coming from underneath.

Something seemed ominous, especially when Iwuji noticed the slight smoke starting to rise. And Iwuji, with 38 combined starts in the K&N Pro Series East and West, has been around race cars enough to know about combustibility.

“As I was walking toward them I noticed that fire underneath was getting just a little bit bigger,” Iwuji said. “Just being around race cars and things that can catch on fire, I knew that something like this just doesn’t slowly become a big fire.

“It can quickly ignite and become a bad situation really quick.”

Iwuji ushered the family – parents, and two children – away from the van. He said he had to practically pull the father out, who was trying to get every item out of the vehicle that he could.

“We got away and just right after that, the engine just burst into flames,” Iwuji said. “From there, it then went into the front seat, then into the back seat, then it got to the fuel cell area and the whole thing erupted.”

[…]

“Don’t be a passerby,” Iwuji said. “Go help if you see something wrong. Don’t just drive by with your cell phone and record it; stop and help. That was the main reason, to really show people that you can do your small part. It has nothing to do with trying to be a hero or anything like that. You just do the right thing.

Category: Navy