Arvin Dismuke has never been the type of person to just sit around and watch when someone is in trouble.

That’s why an unidentified Maricopa driver was exceptionally lucky the former police officer and active-duty Army soldier was on an impromptu detour home to The Lakes at Rancho El Dorado via Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway Friday night.

Around 9:25 p.m., a Jeep crashed into a light pole on that highway near White and Parker Road. It quickly burst into flames and the driver was transported to an area hospital “with serious injuries,” said a public safety spokesperson.

Dismuke and his wife Breanna were driving right behind the Jeep and watched as the driver started to make a right turn onto White and Parker before correcting his vehicle to stay on the highway.

“He didn’t turn enough and ended up hitting a light pole head on,” Dismuke told InMaricopa Saturday. “Immediately, it burst into flames. I pulled over, told my wife to call 911 and ran across the street.”

There, Dismuke found both doors jammed shut and the driver unconscious, wedged between his seat and the steering wheel, he said.

“He started to come to, so I’m talking with him and a young guy also came over to help get him out,” he said.

The pair managed to pull the driver out of the seat before another motorist arrived to help carry the unknown man away from the growing blaze.

“We only had a couple of minutes at best [to save him] because the fire had reached the cabin of the vehicle as we carried him away,” Dismuke said. “Once we were across the street, his whole seat was engulfed in flames.”

A nurse pulled over and offered to look over the driver, shortly followed by police.

“No sooner than [the nurse] started talking to him, the rest of the vehicle just blew. The fire was so hot that we could actually feel it from the opposite side of the road,” Dismuke said.

Shortly afterward, police officers arrived on the scene, followed by firefighters, who extinguished the flames.

Breanna Dismuke said the entire scenario “felt like a movie,” especially watching her husband immediately jump into action.

“I tried my hardest to stay calm while on the phone with 911 because my husband was over there,” she said. “It was just intense and a lot to process after seeing it all happen. I couldn’t stop crying after and I was just thanking God that everybody made it out alive.”

Breanna Dismuke said she was thankful the other three good Samaritans arrived to help the driver and her husband.

“I don’t know who they were, but I appreciate those three humans [who] came to help. I’m so thankful for it because he couldn’t have been able to do it by himself,” she said. “Thank you for the quick thinking to save that man’s life.”

Arvin Dismuke said the reality of being in a life-threatening situation didn’t strike him in the moment.

“Being in law enforcement and now being in the Army, I knew there was no way I could just sit there and listen to him burn to death. I just had to do what I had to do and just go ahead and get him out,” he said. “Anytime I see somebody in need of help, if I can do anything, I’m going to help.”