Stacey Barchenger

FLORIDA TODAY

When Chris MacAllister pulled up to the stop sign at Jones Road and Eau Gallie Boulevard at 11:45 a.m. one Friday last month, he was hungry.

MacAllister, 21, was headed to Makoto's, where his mom was waiting on him for lunch. The speakers on his Ford F150 pumped a "Sublime" Pandora radio station.

Everything seemed normal.

That's what MacAllister thought when he saw a car that appeared to be parked on the south shoulder of Eau Gallie Boulevard nearby.

"I stopped and looked at it for a minute ... and then I noticed there was smoke," said MacAllister.

A Florida Highway Patrol report says the car was a 1993 Toyota Camry station wagon. The report says the 64-year-old driver ran off the road and into a utility pole. The pole splintered into three pieces. The Camry caught fire.

But MacAllister could not yet see all that. All he could see was the smoke coming from the car.

MacAllister ran to the vehicle and saw an unconscious man inside the car. MacAllister pulled on the door handle, but it was broken. He was able to unlatch and open the door as flames spread to the hood and licked their way up trees.

At the same time, Paul and Suzanne Spindler were driving to Renninger's Super Flea and Farmer's Market.

They saw MacAllister, a lanky figure, at the door of the car being engulfed in flames.

Paul Spindler ran to help.

"I was afraid the gas tank would explode," he said during a phone interview from the couple's summer home in Rochester, N.Y.

Paul Spindler and MacAllister each grabbed one of the driver's arms.

"His knees were up under the dashboard. His knees were actually crushed. I'm just pulling on him, pulling on him, lifting him up," MacAllister said.

Bracing themselves, the men yanked the driver from the car.

"As soon as we pulled him out, the windows all started shattering," MacAllister said.

Suzanne Spindler was praying, watching the rescue unfold.

"I was praying also that God would spare this man's life, and also these two men," she said.

An off-duty firefighter stopped and began performing first aid on the driver,MacAllister said. Then Melbourne firefighters and police arrived. The man was taken to Holmes Regional Medical Center. He survived, officials said.

MacAllister snapped a picture and continued on his way to Makoto's for the stir-fried chicken. Laura Bianco was waiting for her son at the restaurant.

"He showed up to lunch, late and dirty and stinking and no eyebrows," she said. "I'm so proud."

MacAllister was covered in the driver's blood. The hair of his arms was singed off. Paul Spindler cleaned up and went on his way to the flea market.

"Had they not removed the man from the car, (the driver) probably would not be with us today," Acting Fire Chief Chuck Bogle told the Melbourne City Council on Tuesday.

The council commended the duo's lifesaving actions. Spindler was not present, nor was a Rockledge man officials said helped in the rescue. The driver of the car that caught fire could not be reached by FLORIDA TODAY.

MacAllister and Spindler are separated in age by more than 55 years. But for both, there was no doubt whether to stop and help.

"I'm going on 77 years old," Spindler said. "I still feel young and good. You don't think of your own safety. You think you've got to get him out or he's going to burn to death. ... That's all I thought. You gotta get him out at any cost."

Contact Barchenger at 321-242-3669 or sbarchenger@floridatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.

