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I’m hesitant to tell this story but last night I almost watched a woman burn to death while her two kids were screaming bloody murder in the middle of the woods at one in the morning. Last night changed me forever and it made me extremely grateful and hopefully I can share a little bit of that with you so that you hug your loved ones extra tight today.

A little context, my wife was on 911 with my phone, so I grabbed her phone and she doesn’t have the flashlight button on the pull down, so the only way to get a light was to start a video. I didn’t take photos in the middle of helping, these are screenshots from a video I had to take to get a flashlight. I had seconds to react, this was the fastest way to get a flashlight. The other thing is our house is right on the side of a mountain just below the high road of Bass Lake. From our patio, we can see part of the road, but it’s at the top of the super steep granite wall (pictured in day). Driving to where this happened would maybe take five minutes even though it was only 300 feet from our house. 

So we sleep outside and at around midnight we hear a huge boom That wakes us all up, my first reaction was it was just the bear getting into a trashcan or something. My wife said she had a really bad feeling so she went outside to investigate and she said that she heard someone screaming. Again, I kinda just assumed that it’s a tourist seeing the bear and freaking out. Then my wife grabs my phone and says a car is on fire and I hear a little girl screaming “please get out of the car mom please don’t die” and another girl screaming in a way that will haunt my dreams forever. 

I honestly don’t remember what my thought process was, just all of a sudden I’m sprinting into the woods and free soloing some gigantic granite wall. I could see the passenger airbag was on fire and it wasn’t that bad but all of a sudden almost like out of a movie the car erupted into flames. Engulfing the entire car and for a moment I thought I was too late. 

Hearing her 8 and 12 year girls screaming for their mom, thinking she was melting in front of them, was something I’d never imagine happening. As I got as close to the car as I could, while the tires were exploding and the flames so intense, I saw the woman knocked out just 20ft from the car. I yelled at the girls to get back and that their mom was out. I didn’t know if I should grab her or not as if her neck was broken I could do more harm. 

But the car caught the trees on fire and now it’s a forest fire situation. I picked her up the best I could and dragged her up the hill to the high road. She came too and was asking if this was a dream. She kept saying she was so tired and she needed to sleep for a bit. Her little girls were screaming “Don’t die mom, dad died like this, you can’t leave us, we will have no one.”… bro… that’s some serious trauma. 

We called the cops immediately but I had to get them off the mountain and away from the fire but not into the middle of a mountain road where we could get hit. I did everything I could to keep everyone calm but the car was raging and the trees were exploding into flames. I got everyone to the safest place possible, the woman said she was thirsty and then a car was driving by. 

I waved and flagged the car down, there are 2 girls in the road, a mom with her face mangled, and a car with 100ft flames… they slowed down, looked, and left… I can’t imagine any scenario in which driving away is the move. Disgusting. 

The cops came, I tell the cop their names, and he says “Oh shit, I know her.” The cop bends down and says “Have you been drinking?” She said “I can’t remember.” The cops says “Are you coming from the bar?” She hesitates, “Yes.” 

It makes me sick to stomach thinking about these little girls and what they just experienced. And the little one is on my daughter’s soccer team, we kinda know this family. 

After I was no longer needed, I down climbed back to the low road, where a group of 4 older men were watching. They wanted to know if the fire was gonna get them. This mad me so angry, you are men no? You are gonna just stand here and watch? Hearing these kids scream? And this is one of two reasons I want to share this. 

Maybe I couldn’t do much, but I could do something. I’m not making this about me or wanting praise, I’m not a hero, I’m just a fukin normal human that could help. Don’t be the kind of person to just watch. Act. Protect. Be selfless. 

The other reason I wanted to share this is that it has shown me just how precious life is. This whole situation happened and was cleaned up in less than an hour, so it’s easy for people to never see these situations and never know that they’re right around the corner from you . I keep thinking if this was my kids or my wife and if I wasn’t there how much I’d want someone to do whatever they could to help. Then by putting my family in this situation, it makes me feel so much gratitude towards life.

Squeeze your loved ones tight tonight, I hope this story gives you a bit of a shift away from the small things, and more on what’s important, because it definitely did for me.

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Tyler Pearce Ⓥ

I pulled a woman & her kids away from a burning car last night…

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Aaaaand it begins… the cave season ☠️

Surprise Surprise… I rant about food 🤓

New Computer Feature 🔓UNLOCKED🔓

Intervals & Volume Eating hacks

90min @ 310w raw (400g/carbs)

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