SEMINOLE, Fla. — A Good Samaritan rescued a man after he crashed his car only moments before it went up in flames early Sunday morning.
The man, 28, drove a red Durango into Second Time Around Consignment Shop on Seminole Boulevard around 4 a.m. In a video obtained by ABC Action News, the good samaritan is seen pulling the man out of the driver's side window and carrying him to safety.
The rescuer was on his way home from work when he saw the crash—and stopped just in time. After the driver was carried away, the fire engulfed the Durango and the front of the consignment shop.
Florida Highway Patrol said they suspected impairment as the reason for the crash. The driver was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and booked into the Pinellas County Jail.
Second Time Around's owner, Christa Cius, said she was asleep at home when she got an alert from her alarm company.
"I checked all my cameras, and everything looked fine, so I went back to sleep," Cius said. "Then I woke up about 6 with lots of missed calls from sheriffs letting me know."
The Durango driver and Good Samaritan were gone by the time she arrived at the shop, but the damage wasn't.
The car took out one of the concrete beams and crashed through the glass window and door. The impact even stretched to the other side of the shop, taking out the glass window and door.
"I had no idea it would be this bad. There was someone here sending me pictures, and the pictures did not do it justice," Cius said.
Vendors like Ann Hardenbrook rent a booth here. The concrete beam landed right where her products were set up.
"Everything was completely ruined in my booth and then the store, of course," Hardenbrook said.
Cius said this has happened before and that since it didn't stop her then, it won't this time either.
With help from the community, they worked around the clock Sunday morning and afternoon to clean up and reopen for business.
Cius is hoping to get new glass windows and doors by Monday.
"This shop is a strong shop. It's been around for 35 years. We'll be fine," she said.
