A heroic woman in Dallas managed to rescue a paralyzed man from his burning car on one random day, then disappeared before he could thank her for saving him. Rather than just counting his lucky stars, the man then used the media attention to track her down and give her a heartfelt and proper “thank you.”
Apparently, the woman, a Mississippian named Tammi Arrington, was visiting a friend in the area when she saw that Dennis Brown, a Dallas resident, was trapped in a flaming rental car. Rushing into action before it was too late, Arrington managed to drag the 58-year-old, paralyzed man out of the vehicle and away from the flames before it was fully engulfed.
Describing the hair-raising incident to the New York Post, Mr. Brown said, “It’s kind of dawning on me the kind of danger I was in. 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.”
Arrington, describing the incident, said she saw the car on fire and thought it was empty. But, approaching it, she realized that there was someone trapped inside. “I just happened to see his head move just a little bit from the headrest and then I realized there was someone in there,” she said.
Brown, describing what happened next, recounted, “She said, ‘Get out of the car.’ I said, ‘I can’t, I’m in a wheelchair.’” Though just a few inches over five feet, Arrington managed to heave Brown out and get him far from the burning car until the fire department arrived.
But Brown never got her name, nor did his family members, so he was unable to give her a proper thank you for saving him from a horrific end. So he agreed to an interview with local media station Fox 4 in the hope that a connection could be made and he would have an opportunity to thank her for rescuing him. “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 told Fox 4.
Fortunately, Arrington’s friend saw the story on Fox 4 and let her know about it, so she contacted the station, which connected the two of them. Brown, describing that conversation, said, “The first thing I said was, ‘Tammi, this is Dennis, the guy in the wheelchair.’ We started laughing, man, we just started laughing.” Arrington, for her part, said, “I’m glad he’s OK. Any human response — I think if they saw that, they would have done the same thing.”
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