MORGANTON, N.C. — A woman said she was stuck in her burning pickup truck Monday night with no way out until a neighbor pulled her to safety.
She is calling him a guardian angel.
Eyewitness News reporter Dave Faherty went to the Drexel apartment complex where the tense rescue unfolded and spoke with the victim.
The driver, Deborah Morgan, said she spotted flames but when she tried to get out the door, it wouldn't open.
"It was like an orange light at first, and it came into a ball," Morgan said. "Came over here just to jump out of the truck and call 911, and next thing I know I couldn't get out of the truck."
Her truck was at her apartment when it caught fire.
The door wouldn't open and her seat belt wouldn't come undone as smoke started filling up the cab of the truck.
"I don't know if it was fear or what," she said. "I tried my seat belt, tried the door, everything. And life before me just flashed."
Firefighters and mechanics said that once the fire started in the engine, the electric locks on the doors most likely quit working.
Morgan most likely panicked and didn't realize she could unlock the doors manually, they said.
She did think to call her neighbor, a retired paramedic.
"If he didn't pull me out when he did, I would not even be here because the truck engulfed right away," Morgan said.
The neighbor didn't want to be identified and doesn't want to be called a hero.
"He's like my guardian angel," Morgan said. "To him, he's just a friend of mine. He'd do it for anybody."
Investigators ruled this fire as accidental, officials said.
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