'They Risked Their Life to Save My Life': Two Strangers Pull Man From Burning Truck

April 3, 2026

A routine trip home turned into a life or death moment, but thanks to two strangers who refused to look the other way, a 73 year old man in Conway, South Carolina is alive today to tell the story.

The two heroes / Credit: Steve Howell

Steve Howell had been heading back to Bucksport on Saturday afternoon after picking up a lawnmower when everything suddenly went wrong. Around 5 p.m., the trailer attached to his 1977 Ford truck began to sway uncontrollably, and within seconds, he lost control.

“The truck spun around and did a 180 and headed for the ditch,” Howell recalled. “And the truck flipped with me… dislocated both shoulders and one of my hips.”

The crash left him seriously injured and unable to move. Trapped inside the overturned truck, he could only watch as smoke began rising from under the hood.

That smoke quickly turned into flames.

“I knew if I didn’t get out I was going to die,” Howell said. “I could not move my arms. I was totally helpless. And the smoke and flames was getting worse and worse.”

Alone and unable to escape, Howell feared the worst as the fire grew closer to the truck’s fuel tank.

“I was afraid at any minute the gas tank was going to blow up,” he said. “What was going through my mind was I was going to burn to death.”

With no way out, he began to pray.

Moments later, something remarkable happened.

“I looked up next to the driver’s side window and I saw the blue sky,” Howell said. “And then I saw two guys looking down through the window at me.”

The heroes posing with Steve / Credit: Steve Howell

Those two men, complete strangers, did not hesitate.

“They pulled me out of the truck… burning truck… just in time,” Howell said. “We were strangers. They didn’t owe me a favor, but out of the goodness of their heart, they risked their life to pull me out… and they risked their life to save my life.”

The men pulled Howell through the driver’s side window and got him to safety just before the fire fully engulfed the vehicle and began spreading to the nearby woods.

Emergency crews arrived shortly afterward, but by then, the most important rescue had already taken place.

For Howell, there is no doubt about how it all unfolded.

“God sent them along at the right time at the last minute, or I would not be here today,” he said.

In a moment where everything could have been lost, two strangers stepped in and gave a man a second chance at life.