Caleb MacDonald paused a moment in front of the burning car.

Flames six feet tall poured from the engine, the smell of melting rubber heavy in the air.

Inside, the driver was screaming for help.

For a few seconds, MacDonald thought about whether the car would explode, killing them both. He thought about his 10-month old son Branson.

He thought about how lucky he was to have already just survived a head-on collision between his truck and the red Chevy Cobalt now in flames.

Was he ready to risk his life to save the man he believed could have ended his?

The two-vehicle collision happened at 3:44 p.m. on Monday south of Newmarket. MacDonald was heading to work when he says another car swerved into his lane, hitting him head-on. Soon after the collision, the other driver’s car burst into flames with him trapped inside.

MacDonald, 25, came to a decision. He would try to save the man’s life.

He muttered a brief prayer: “OK, Jesus, can you help me out on this one?”

He pulled up his hood as he ran to the car. The driver’s side door was blocked but the passenger door was slightly ajar, pushed open by the driver, a 64-year-old man now barely conscious.

Hardly noticing the heat, MacDonald yanked open the door and grabbed the shoulder of the driver’s jacket. He dragged the man about 15 feet before two bystanders came to help him pull the man to a safe distance.

Moments later the entire car was engulfed in flames, eating away at the red paint until the sedan was just a twisted piece of silver metal, unrecognizable from the car heading north on Dufferin St. just a few minutes prior.

Const. Mike McKeraghan, from the York Regional police, confirmed the other driver — a 64-year-old man from Bradford — was charged with careless driving.

Witness Glen Peters, 42, was driving behind the red Chevy before the collision occurred.

Peters said he had noticed the car moving erratically, drifting over the yellow line a few times. He was debating whether to call 911 when MacDonald’s truck and the Chevy collided, he said.

The fire sounded like “sixty packs of bacon crackling,” said Peters. And the vehicles had spun so the gas tank of MacDonald’s truck was dangerously near the flames, he said.

MacDonald escaped the crash with whiplash, sore muscles and wrists from the airbag release, and a headache.

The rescue happened, “faster than you could blink basically,” he said Tuesday from his Newmarket home. “Adrenalin was pumping. And I wasn’t wasting any time. I have 10-month old son I want to raise.”

The other driver received serious but non-life threatening injuries, said police.

“His femur broken in two spots, his ankle broken so many times they might have to amputate, the bone above his eye socket was broken, his shoulder was broken and his wrist,” said MacDonald.

Peters, the witness, helped MacDonald drag the driver to safety. Afterward, as a fire truck, police units and EMS arrived, Peters gave MacDonald a hug.

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“I knew he was freaked out more than I was. I just told him, you’re a hero … You know you always see the person that does a good thing and they say I’m not a hero, I’m not a hero — like he did — but he initialized things. He was sort of the team leader, he leaned in and grabbed the guy.”

MacDonald is just grateful that both of the men came out alive.

“I’m just glad I stood up when I needed,” said MacDonald. “You only get a couple of chances in your life to prove what you’re made of.”