INDIANAPOLIS — A local woman is lucky to be alive thanks to two strangers. Thursday morning her car burst into flames after smashing into a cable median on I-74.

“As a human being, we would all hope in our time of need somebody would step up and offer that help,” says Indiana State Patrol (ISP) Sgt. John Perrine.

ISP says the driver was delirious and not getting out of the vehicle. That’s when Craig Gay drove by and spotted her. Gay, who is a Marine, jumped into action. He tried to get her out through the passenger side door, but the flames were getting dangerous.

“In the Marine Corps, if you sit still, you die. That’s our motto, so if I just would have done nothing, no action would have been taken,” said Gay. “To get her out, if I was going to get a few burns, I think it would be worth somebody’s life.”

A truck driver from Massachusetts, John Goretskiy, also came running over. He was able to hold back the flames with a fire extinguisher. The assistance allowed Gay to cut her seatbelt with a pair of scissors. The two pulled the woman to safety.

“Him having that fire extinguisher bought us a lot of time, because if not, I really can’t say what would have come of it,” continued Gay.

“The sergeant on scene was pretty certain that had those two gentleman not been there, and the others, to help pull this young lady out of the car, we could have been investigating a fatal crash,” said Sgt. Perrine.

ISP is still investigating how the crash happened in the first place.