Virginia Teen Miraculously Lifts Truck to Rescue Her Trapped Father During Garage Fire

Charlotte Heffelmire, currently in the Air Force Academy, is also a former pole vaulter.

A 19-year-old Virginia woman says she's "just healing up and making sure the family is OK" after heroically saving her family from a garage fire, NBC Washington reports. Charlotte Heffelmire, a former pole vaulter and current Air Force Academy attendee, managed to lift a truck off her father after a jack slipped and trapped him beneath the vehicle.

The dramatic rescue was made even more difficult by an instantaneous blaze in the garage, with Heffelmire acting fast to ensure that her grandmother and three-month-old niece could escape the residence. "The minute the jack slipped, there was an almost instantaneous, real strong smell of gasoline, and then just whoosh," the father, Eric Heffelmire, tells NBC. "We had a bunch of propane containers and they were cooking off, just fireballs."

Heffelmire, suddenly realizing the truck's tank could cause the home to explode, quickly made sure she "gunned the truck sideways" away from the home before taking a garden hose to the garage blaze as the family waited for firefighters to arrive. "If I can't do any of the military branches, then probably just intelligence or government work," Heffelmire says of her injuries, including burns on her feet and hands and a back injury. Earlier this month, Heffelmire was awarded the Citizen Lifesaving Award by the Fairfax County Fire Department.

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