Everyday heroes: 11 tales of American heroes

- David Clark Scott, Staff, Sara Afzal and Andrew Heining, Contributors

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5. Stranger rescues man from burning car

Like the Good Samaritan described in Luke, Robert L. Thompson Jr. was rescued by a stranger.

Early on the morning of April 5, at about 1 a.m., Thompson was driving southbound on Interstate 195 in Richmond, Va. The police say he was intoxicated. Witnesses say he was going too fast and the car swerved, perhaps to miss a deer on the road. The car "pinballed" between the guard rails before crashing and catching on fire.

That's when a man, who only gave his first name, "Anthony," came to Thompson's rescue.

"I told him, 'You've really gotta get out of the car,'...." Anthony told TV 8News, WRIC in Richmond. "He tried to assist me as much as he could, but his foot got caught on the steering wheel, so I had to try to get his foot free from the steering wheel. We managed to do that. After that, we had to get him out of the car and move over to a safe distance."

Thompson was taken to a local hospital for treatment for minor injuries. He was later charged with driving under the influence.