Paralyzed Dallas man pulled from burning car by good Samaritan — then tracks her down to ‘give proper thank you’

A Texas man paralyzed below the waist was pulled from a burning car by a heroic woman — and then made it his mission to track down the previously unidentified good Samaritan so he could thank her properly.

Dennis Brown of Dallas heaped praise on Tammi Arrington after the Mississippi resident, who was visiting a friend in the Lone Star State, jumped into action when Brown’s rental car suddenly caught fire Sunday morning.

She dragged the 58-year-old from the car before flames fully engulfed the vehicle that was equipped with a hand control device that enables him to drive.

“It’s kind of dawning on me the kind of danger I was in,” Brown told The Post Wednesday night. “If it wasn’t for Tammi, I don’t know how I possibly would’ve gotten out or how close I would’ve got burned or wouldn’t be here today if not for Tammi.”

The two were able to reconnect Wednesday morning, days after Brown forgot to ask for her name in the immediate aftermath of the frightening ordeal.

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Arrington, 42, insisted to The Post Wednesday night she was simply in the right place at the right time when she saw the car on fire.

Instead of going with her friend to Costco that morning, she decided to stay behind in the new home she just helped her pal move into.

When she looked out the front window, she saw part of the car in flames.

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She rushed outside and saw all the doors were closed, initially believing it was empty.

“I just happened to see his head move just a little bit from the headrest and then I realized there was someone in there,” Arrington said.

She ran to the car and opened the door, urging Brown to flee from the fire.

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“She said, ‘Get out of the car,’” said Brown, who became paralyzed after he was shot at 22. “I said, ‘I can’t, I’m in a wheelchair.’”

She originally grabbed the wheelchair, but soon realized she didn’t have enough time to put it together.

Arrington, only 5 feet 3, said she dragged Brown out and then placed him in the wheelchair after it was assembled.

The two moved far from the burning car until the local fire department extinguished the flames.

Brown said that in all the chaos, he never got her name.

While Brown’s loved ones went over later to thank Arrington at the home she was visiting, they also never caught her name.

By the time he tried to visit, no one was home and Arrington was gone, he said.  

“I didn’t give a proper thank you,” Brown said.

Brown agreed to be interviewed by Fox 4 in hopes that word would get back to the mystery good Samaritan.

“I’d like to appreciate her for her heroic act,” he told the station. “She went into harm’s way to save me. Dragged me out. I’d like to thank her.”

Arrington’s friend saw the news story and let her know about it.

She got in touch with Fox 4 and the station connected the two.

“The first thing I said was, ‘Tammi, this is Dennis, the guy in the wheelchair,’” Brown said. “We started laughing, man, we just started laughing.”

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Brown plans on taking Arrington and her friend out to dinner the next time she’s in town along with Brown’s appreciative mother, Julia.

But Arrington doesn’t think she deserves much, if any, credit for her heroics.

“I’m glad he’s OK,” Arrington said, later adding, “Any human response — I think if they saw that, they would have done the same thing.”