NEED TO KNOW
- A car fire occurred at a Macy’s store’s upper level parking garage in the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Ill., on Oct. 25
- Navy sailor William Thompson assisted in pulling the driver, who experienced a medical emergency, out of the burning vehicle
- “It’s like everything the Navy taught me, just instantly erupted inside of me,” Thompson later told WLS
A Navy sailor performed a heroic deed on land when he helped rescue a man from a burning vehicle in Illinois last weekend.
The incident occurred at an upper level parking garage of a Macy’s store in the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg on Saturday, Oct. 25, ABC affiliate WLS, NBC affiliate WMAQ and the Daily Herald.
Schaumburg Police said that officers responded to a report of a burning car at the garage around 2:20 p.m. local time. They said that a driver experienced a medical emergency before his vehicle caught fire.
Footage of the incident shared by WLS shows large plumes of smoke coming from the vehicle. Authorities said the blazed damaged three other nearby vehicles.
The news outlets reported that a bystander helped rescue the driver, who was then taken to a hospital for treatment.
William Thompson, a Navy sailor who was also involved in Saturday’s rescue, later told WLS he had recently completed boot camp.
“Instantly, it’s like my body moving on itself,” Thompson told the outlet for a story published on Tuesday, Oct. 28. “It’s like everything the navy taught me, just instantly erupted inside of me.”
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The sailor said that he experienced some injuries when he broke the vehicle’s window, and that other Good Samaritans also assisted in pulling the driver out.
Firefighters employed a blanket containing a mixture of foam and water, because of fuel leaking on the ground, to put out the fire, the Daily Herald reported, adding there was no damage to the mall’s interior or nearby structures.
PEOPLE contacted the Schaumburg Police Department and the Navy on Wednesday, Oct. 29, for comment.
