FANNETT, Texas — Last week, a Jefferson County woman saved a young man from being burned alive when his car caught fire as he was driving along Interstate 10.
We shared this story with you last week and recently we got the opportunity to sit down with the woman who first responders are commending for her heroic actions.
Michelle Hanson, a stay-at-home mom in Fannett, was taking what she thought was a normal trip to the grocery store last week.
That trip quickly turned into a scene straight out of an action film when her ordinary day of running errands became a mission to save a young man's life.
Johntae Meads, 23, was travelling east on Interstate 10 from Houston when his check engine light came on. That's when he took the exit and ended up on the frontage road of Highway 365, where his smoking car caught Hanson's eye.
"I noticed a car had exited and I was like, 'There's a lot of smoke coming out from the back of that car,' and you could see he had caught fire, like there was a stream of fire underneath his car," Hanson recalled.
Hanson says she feels like she didn't do anything extravagant. She was just doing what she hopes every person would do in a situation like this one.
She immediately tried to get Meads' attention and warn him of the fire.
"I was honking and waving. I was screaming at him. I was waving," she explained. "I rolled down my window ,and finally, I got enough of a commotion out that he finally jumped out of his car. He looked back, and he saw it. Then he ran towards my car."
She then drove Meads across the street, away from his car and called 911.
"I got off the phone with 911 quickly and was like, 'Hi, I'm Michelle. Sorry we're meeting like this but you're safe. You're okay,'" she said.
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The newly acquainted pair watched as Meads' car quickly became engulfed in flames.
She stayed with him until firefighters arrived and put the fire out. It was a situation that could have had a tragic ending but didn't.
"I was like, 'You had angels around you that got you safely in a safe spot,'" Hanson said.
Some might say that Hanson was Meads' angel and was in the right place at the right time to help out.
After helping out the mom went on to finish all her errands and headed home.