“You Can’t Think. You Have To Act.” Man Risks Life To Pull

You never know when life will hand you an emergency and ask you to step up.


Justin Quesenberry of Elkhorn City, Kentucky was minding his own business in a rural neighborhood when the peaceful afternoon was shattered by a loud bang. Justin says he heard a car’s engine revving just before it exploded. He and his other neighbors went running towards the sound to see what had happened.



Neighbors surrounded the car, which was rapidly filling up with thick smoke. There was so much smoke inside the vehicle that Justin was positive the driver hadn’t survived. They called for emergency services, but no one wanted to get too close out of fear that the car might fully explode.


“The windows were up for so long, I just knew whoever was in there had suffocated,” Justin recalled.


Soon after the smoke cleared a bit, revealing something that Justin could hardly believe: The driver was moving inside the cabin!



“I seen a human moving,” he said. “I mean it was just like a weight lifted off of my shoulders, that I knew there was somebody to save.”


Jumping into action, Justin urged the driver to move towards him and the passenger side window. The driver was too overcome by smoke and injury to do so, but Justin was able to reach into the car and grab the man under the arms, pulling him out of the car to safety.


The fire department arrived shortly afterwards and put out the car fire. The driver was badly injured but is expected to recover.



Soon, rumors about Justin’s heroic actions began to circulate through the small town.


The Elkhorn City Police Department shared his story and hailed Justin as a hero, writing, “Although the driver received serious injuries it is because of the quick actions of this local Elkhorn City resident that the driver lived.”


In spite of the hullabaloo, Justin insists that he just did what anyone would have done under the same circumstances.


“You can’t think,” he said. “You have to act. Because every moment that you’re stuttering and thinking — and if you get scared and let fear take you over — every bit of those seconds is taken away from that person’s life.”



Burning cars are no joke! We’re so grateful that Justin was at the right place at the right time to save a life that day.


Don’t forget to share Justin’s heroic story with a friend.

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