1-year-old rescued by marine from burning car in California

A Marine from Boscobel benefitted from his training and will as a father to rescue a baby from a burning car.

Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Wetter was driving home from Camp Pendelton to Temecula, California, on a highway similar to the Grant county roads he grew up on, near Boscobel.

“Out of the corner of my eye I saw sparks so I looked at it and it was sparking underneath the car,” GySgt Wetter said. “It erupted into flames underneath the car.”

He said that a gas canister had fallen off of a truck and started the fire under the vehicle next to him.

So he pulled over to see what he could do to assist with.

“I tried to get the fire out before anything else but it wasn’t helping,” Wetter said. “That’s when I heard the mom yell ‘My baby’s in the car, my baby’s in the car’.”

Wetter, a father of nearly 2-year-old-triplets, says he hopped into the burning vehicle and found the 1-year-old-girl stuck in her car seat, while Tony Hurley, the girl’s father, tried pulling her out.

“That’s when I decided to cut the car seatbelt, the car was gone anyway,” he said. “I actually apologized later to the dad and said ‘Hey, I cut your seatbelt and he was like, ‘The car’s on fire anyway’.”

Much because of Wetter’s quick thinking, Hurley was able to pull the girl out, while the Marine rescued the personal belongings he could grab.

Hurley said Wetter is a hero in his book.

But Wetter says he was just doing the right thing.

“It’s kinda just my Wisconsin upbringing, just wanting to help your neighbor, help people out,” he said.

He hopes others will learn from his experience.

“I’m not saying that you need to jump into a burning car or burning house to save someone, but just be a good person, that’s all we have to do in this life is be good people,” Wetter said.