Unlikely hero aided crash victims minutes before Manzanita fire started

An unlikely hero aided crash victims minutes before flames spread from the highway to the hillside, becoming the Manzanita fire.

Authorities say it started with a traffic collision on Highway 79, near Beaumont, and quickly spread in the hot, windy conditions.

Read: 5,800-acre brush fire south of Beaumont was triggered by car crash

News Channel 3 / CBS Local 2 reporter Katie Widner spoke with one of the first people on scene.

Araceli Hernandez told me she was on her way home from a doctor’s appointment when she saw a flash in front of her and then a cloud of dust.

Hernandez says she immediately dialed 911 and pulled over alongside a group of other good samaritans, who were able to pull the elderly woman driver, her son and the dog from the car and help them to safety.

“The embankment was really steep so we had to help her up. She couldn’t make it up the hill herself. We had to carry herself most of the way.”

Read: Mandatory evacuations issued after vegetation fire erupts in Highland

Hernandez is nearly 9 months pregnant while helping the crash victims, her due date just eleven days away.

She says that within 10 minutes, The flames had hopped the freeway and began to climb the hillsides.

Hernandez doesn’t think she is a hero but does believe had she and others not stopped here might have been a completely different outcome.