Dog News

Tennessee Titans Rookie Saves Family & Dog from Burning Car

by Melanie

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A rookie for the Tennessee Titans is being hailed a hero after saving a woman and her family from a burning car.

Jonathan “Tig” Willard was on his way from South Carolina to training camp on Tuesday when he noticed a car ahead of him trailing black smoke. He pulled alongside and honked his horn, signaling for the driver to pull over.

I saw this car in front of me, and it had all kinds of black smoke coming out of it,” the football player said.  “I tried to speed up and get up next to the car to let them know the car was on fire.”

When he was close enough, he could see that inside the car was a woman, three children and a dog. The car became quickly engulfed in flames, but the driver was unaware of what was happening.

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When she pulled over, the car was really on fire at that point. The driver, she acted like she was in some kind of daze or something,” Tig explained. “She told me that she didn’t stop because she didn’t think it was her car that was on fire. Another guy stopped, and we managed to get the kids and the dog out and get them to safety, and then I finally got the woman out.”

I was just glad that we got the kids and all of them out of the car,” Tig said. “I was thinking that I was just doing what everybody else would do, but there were cars just going past us and no one else was stopping, so I don’t know if that is what would happen or not.”

The woman was incredibly grateful to Tig and the other good Samaritan for stepping up and doing what was necessary to save all of their lives.

She just kept thanking me,” he said. “That car was just gone. It went up quick.”