NEW BRIGHTON, Minn. -- As flames licked up from beneath a vehicle and smoke filled its interior, Bob Renning pried open its door to get the threatened driver out.
Renning credits “pure adrenaline” for giving him the strength to bend the door until the glass window shattered as the 2006 Chevy Trailblazer sat Sunday evening along Interstate 35W in New Brighton, a northern Twin Cities suburb.
The driver, Michael Johannes, of Minneapolis was trying to escape through the passenger side door as the SUV filled with smoke.
“I could hear him,” said Renning, 52, of Woodbury. “He was kicking and beating the window trying to break it open from the inside. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time.”
It all started early Sunday evening as Renning was driving southbound on I-35W. As he looked in his side and rearview mirrors, he noticed flames coming from beneath a vehicle six or seven car-lengths behind him.
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“I don’t believe the driver knew he was on fire,” Renning said Monday.
Renning slowed down to get the driver’s attention.
The other driver, Johannes, pulled over about the same time Renning had reached him, Renning said.
Renning stopped about 250 feet in front of Johannes’ burning car, which was quickly filling with smoke.
Renning then told his girlfriend, who was in the car with him, to call 911, and he bolted toward the flames.
Renning then grabbed the top of the door frame and leveraged his body against it, pulling it until the window glass shattered.
Johannes confirmed no one else was inside, and both moved away from the flames.
Police and rescue crews arrived shortly after, Renning said.
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Johannes later told Renning that his car was having electrical problems before it caught fire and that the speedometer had dropped to zero. It was locked from the inside when he tried to escape.
Johannes could not be reached immediately Monday for comment.
Minnesota State Trooper Zachary Hill was among the rescue crew.
“(Renning) did an extraordinary deed, bending a locked car door in half … to extricate a trapped person,” Hill said in a statement. “I feel this man deserves any and all commendation for his extraordinary life-saving measure that kept another from burning alive.”
Johannes suffered minor smoke inhalation and cuts and scrapes, State Patrol officials said. Renning was not injured.
Renning, a member of the Air National Guard, said he had “no clue” where his strength came from that night.
“I’m sure it was pure adrenaline,” he said.
The Pioneer Press is a media partner with Forum News Service.
