(From Marathon Petroleum)
“I honestly didn’t think about it. I knew something was wrong, and someone needed my help.”
That was the immediate response from Zach Dollich, a personal safety professional at Marathon Petroleum, when asked what went through his mind as he ran toward a smoking car on the side of Interstate 75 in northwest Ohio one Tuesday morning in June.
Dollich was driving his normal southbound route when he noticed smoke rising from a vehicle on the shoulder. At first, he assumed it was a flat tire or overheated brakes.
“But as I got closer, I saw more sparks and the smoke was getting heavier,” he said. “It didn’t make sense for just a tire or brake issue. That’s when I knew it was more serious.”
He immediately pulled over.
Jumping out of his truck, Dollich ran toward the car. Small flames had begun forming under the engine compartment, and thick, dark smoke was pouring out. That’s when he saw her.
“A woman was hanging partway out of the driver’s side window,” he said. “She told me the door wouldn’t open.”
That woman was 71-year-old Linda VanDenEynde of Findlay, Ohio. She had left home early that morning to meet her cousin in Detroit, where the two planned to honor her cousin’s late husband by laying his ashes to rest.
But after her car began surging and struggling to maintain speed, she decided to turn around. Just a few minutes from home, it gave out on the side of I-75 just north of Findlay.
“I didn’t even know it was on fire,” VanDenEynde said. “I thought it was just smoke from the engine. I had the windows rolled up and was trying to call AAA. People were passing me, just going around like nothing was wrong. But Zach saw it and stopped.”
She shut off the engine. That’s when the car locked.
“I couldn’t get the doors open. I started pounding on the windows. Then I saw flames coming into the car.”
She managed to lower the window just a few inches. It was barely enough to fit her head through.
“I yelled, ‘Pull me out. Please, just pull me out.’ And he did,” said VanDenEynde. “He grabbed me and pulled me through that tiny space. I was bruised up from trying to squeeze out, but we got away from the car.”
They ran together. Within moments, her car was engulfed in flames.
“If he hadn’t stopped, I would still have been sitting in that car,” she said. “I would have died. No one else stopped, but he did. He didn’t know me, but he risked everything to save me. That kind of courage stays with you. He saved my life.”
She said that once they were safe from danger, neither of them could believe what had just brought them together. Two strangers now connected forever.
“I’ll never forget his face,” said VanDenEynde.
As they watched the flames take over the car, a Hancock County EMS supervisor who was passing by stopped and tried to put out the fire with a handheld extinguisher, but the flames were already too intense. Dollich had called 911, and emergency crews arrived a short time later.
“It all happened so fast,” Dollich said. “It was scary how quickly the car was basically gone.”
His military background, including serving nearly six years in the Army, along with his role at Marathon Petroleum, helped him stay calm and do his best to keep VanDenEynde calm, too.
Read the full story on the Marathon website by clicking here.
