Good samaritan helps pull victim of deadly crash from burning truck

Carlos Flores tells ABC-7 he’s no hero, but after hearing his story, you might beg to differ.

Flores, a former combat medic, risked his life and ran into the smoke to save the driver of a burning truck Saturday night.

El Paso Police tell ABC-7 the crash happened at around 9:30 Saturday night near Gateway East and Giles.

Police say the driver of a 2009 Dodge Ram was traveling East on Gateway in the mandatory left turn lane approaching Giles.

A 2008 Honda Accord was in the middle lane making a left, northbound turn onto Giles. The driver of the Ram failed to make the mandatory left turn and struck the Accord.

The Ram then struck a signal light pole and caught fire. Monday, police identified the driver of the Dodge Ram as 48-year-old Javier Ruvalcaba. Although Ruvalcaba was pulled to safety, he later died.

Flores was across the street when he says his family spotted the flames.

“Another gentleman came and said ‘should we pull him out?’ I said, ‘I don’t know we might not be able to’ and he grabbed him by his arm and we started moving him and saw that he wasn’t stuck so we pulled him out,” Flores said.

Flores says it angers him that people who saw the truck on fire didn’t jump into help. He says instead, they took out their cell phones and recorded it.

“I saw at least 5 or 6 people recording what was going on,” he said. “It made me angry. I couldn’t fathom people just watching and not trying to help.”

Sunday afternoon footprints in ash were still on the sidewalk, along with tire marks and a sign the truck possibly hit.

Flores says God put him at that intersection for a reason.

“Nobody else was doing anything. If I wouldn’t have, maybe his family wouldn’t have had a body to bury, maybe it would’ve just been ashes,” Flores said.

But the father of three says he doesn’t consider himself a hero. Despite his actions that day, he says he still wishes he could’ve done more.

“I wish I could’ve got here sooner, maybe I could’ve helped him even more,” Flores said. “But I didn’t make it here fast enough.”