Edward Dale Meracle helped to save Mary A. McReynolds from burning, West Frankfort, Illinois, September 18, 1983. Miss McReynolds, 18, was pinned unconscious in the passenger seat of a car after a highway accident in which the car burst into flame. Meracle, 18, service station attendant, and another man ran to the burning car along with the car’s driver, who had fled from it moments earlier. Despite increasing flames on the car’s hood and on the ground beneath its leaking fuel tank, Meracle entered the car from the driver’s side as the other men maneuvered the front seat-backs out of the way. Meracle freed Miss McReynolds with difficulty, then he and one of the other men pulled her clear of the car and took her to safety, moments before the car’s interior was engulfed in an explosive burst of flames. Miss McReynolds recovered from minor injuries.
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