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“Something out of a movie”: Video shows Good Samaritan save burning woman from East Boston crash

By BRANDON TRUITT

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    BOSTON (WBZ) — Part of Route 1A north was closed in East Boston after a tanker and car crashed early Wednesday morning, igniting both vehicles and the driver of the car.

It all happened near Boardman Street just before 3 a.m. The tanker was reportedly carrying gasoline.

“It was just something out of a movie,” said Heather Rutigliano, who witnessed the crash and recorded video of the rescue. The driver’s hair and arm caught fire and a Good Samaritan pulled over and jumped in to help her.

“He wound up just going over to her because she must have been in shock and she was on fire,” said Rutigliano. “He went over and he took his jacket off and put it over her head and put the fire out that was on her head and on her arm.”

Police said the woman was taken to the hospital with burns that they called non-life-threatening.

The crash took hours to clean up and backed up traffic during the morning commute. Rutigliano said she didn’t get the man’s name but she’s thankful he helped the woman.

“He was brave enough to go right up to the car. If he wasn’t there, I don’t know what would have happened,” said Rutigliano. “She just stopped and sat right down on the ground right behind the car. She was on fire.”

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