BIBB COUNTY, Ga. — A green light. A blown tire. Impact.
"He couldn't stop in time and he hit him and it (burst) into flames," remembers Andrew Harris.
Thursday night, a car burst into flames after smashing into a tractor trailer on Highway 247 near Allen Road.
Harris saw it happen. "Just burning rubber, burning metal," he recalls.
He knew that smell. He'd trained for it. "I used to be on the fire department for Bibb County," he said. "But not for that long."
It was long enough. "My adrenaline shot in, I knew what I needed to do," he said.
Harris, with the help of some other witnesses, rushed in and pulled the car's driver out.
Around that same time, Bibb County Fire Department Captain Demetrius Ellison was pulling in on his day off after he happened to be driving by the scene on his way to visit family.
"A lot of debris (was) on the road," Ellison said. "I was saying, 'OK, here we go.'"
He saw Harris and recognized him. "We gave him a little training," said Ellison.
Ellison was one of Harris' former instructors during firefighter training.
Teacher and student, distanced by time, were reunited by necessity.
"It was a serious accident," he said.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office says nobody was seriously hurt. Harris is a big reason why.
"If it wasn't for him, it could've been pretty bad," said Ellison.
Harris chalks it up to something else. "That's God right there, putting his hands on everything," he said.