Young men put their lives in danger to save the life of a stranger

Men honored for saving woman

Award created for two DeKalb County men who saved a woman trapped in a burning car

ATLANTA, Ga. - Two young men decided to put their lives in danger, to save the life of a stranger trapped in a burning car.

Blake Henry and Caleb McHugh are a part of the Chief Fire Protection Company. Trained by a firefighter, the two men jumped into action on January 24, 2020.

Blake says both of them were driving home from work when they noticed a stopped car on Interstate 85 near the Chamblee Tucker exit. “[Caleb] says, ‘Blake, the lady is still in there. She’s unconscious and the truck is on fire, we gotta help,’” remembers Blake.

The two pulled over immediately and describe the scene as “something like out of a movie.”

They say the woman trapped inside the burning car, slowly began regaining consciousness. “She’s just screaming for her life,” says Blake.

Both men and a few others jumped into action to save her life. Blake says, “with a little bit of motivation and some teamwork, we got her to safety on the side of the road.”

The men say there was no other option than to help that woman. “It was just so selfless because we knew at any moment that car could’ve just completely exploded. We know that she was a mother, she’s someone’s daughter. She has a family and at that point, we didn’t care about ourselves,” says Blake and Caleb.

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But in addition to saving that woman’s life, the two men say they aren’t done helping her.

Caleb says, “We want to connect with her on a personal level and help her in any way possible. [I told her] just let us know and we’ll do whatever it takes to help you out.”

Both of them say they weren’t looking for credit. But that didn’t stop the Chief Fire Protection Company from creating a brand new award for them.

It’s called “The Paul Staton Award for Servant Leadership.” Blake says, “it means a lot because it’s going to be history now.” The two will always be known as the first people to receive the award. Caleb says, “it’s an  honor that they came up with this for us, honestly.”