Lawyer saves man from vehicle fire in Raleigh parking garage

John McWilliam said he had just cleared the barrier arm at the entrance to the city-owned Moore Square garage at around 9 a.m. when he noticed the smoke and then flames coming from the vehicle in front of him.

"I yell to the driver, 'Your car's on fire! Your car's on fire! Get out! Get out! Get out!'" said McWilliam, an attorney who was on his way to work at the Wake County Justice Center at the time.

Luis Ramos jumped out of the SUV, but he didn't turn the engine off, McWilliam said, so the vehicle started to roll backwards toward his car. McWilliam yelled for Ramos to turn the SUV off, and after Ramos did that, he stood next to the SUV staring at the fire.

"So I yell at him, 'Get away! Get away from the car!'" McWilliam said.

McWilliam said he called to the parking attendant to raise the barrier arm so he could back his car away from the fire, and then he called 911.

"When I'm on the phone with the 911 dispatch person, there's a massive explosion, which she hears," he said. "At that point, she gets it. All the other 911 calls are coming in, the sirens are blaring and I leave."

No one was injured in the incident, but emergency crews shut down the garage, on South Wilmington Street, to douse the fire and clean up.

Ramos said he felt very lucky that McWilliam told him about the fire.

McWilliam called the incident "scary but really exciting."