Fort Myers woman saves man from burning car

Reporter: Dannielle Garcia Writer: Drew Hill
Published: Updated:

A Fort Myers woman on Saturday rushed to help save a man from a flipped car that was burning on I-75. While some would run away from the situation, she was prepared.

Rebecca Dabney happened to have a switchblade in her car that she’d received recently and was able to cut him out of his seatbelt just in time.

Dabney says she didn’t expect to see what she saw while she was driving.

“I could see the driver was still trapped in the car, so I pulled over,” she said.

She was prepared to act.

“I’ve seen a lot of car fires over the years so I knew that the car was going to go up into flames pretty quickly. So I grabbed my micro tech [knife] and cut the seatbelt, and me and a few of the bystanders were able to pull him out and get him to safety,” Dabney said.

She was a police officer for 13 years in California, and on Saturday, she just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

“He was right here on the driver’s seat where it was all crushed,” she said.

They did manage to get away from the car in time. “We got about maybe 30 to 40 feet away and the car just went up in flames, completely engulfed. We actually had to move them again because it was so hot.”

“Somebody was looking out for him, for sure,” Dabney said.

She believes this because she wasn’t the only one helping. Another good Samaritan happened to have a fire extinguisher in his truck. He put out the flames while she cut the man out of the car.

Paramedics did take him to the hospital and Dabney just hopes he’ll be OK.

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