Dearborn Area Men Save Baby from Fiery Florida Crash

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Dearborn resident Steve Hill had only one thought as he frantically climbed over the body of a dead man to save a baby bathed in the fire of a spectacular crash on a Florida highway early Friday morning.

“There was no way I was going to let that baby die, no way,” Hill told First Coast News after he and Jason Nelson, of Dearborn Heights, became overnight heroes with powerful, if not divine, timing. “I’d burn first for sure.”

A moment later, he and Nelson would have been too late to save the baby. They almost weren’t there at all.

Movers with Farmington Hills-based Corrigan Moving Systems, the pair had almost stopped to sleep about 1 a.m. Friday morning, but decided to go ahead and drop off the moving trailer at its destination in Jacksonville.

As they approached the accident on Interstate 95, they thought the flames in the distance were from a small encampment for the homeless. As they got closer, they made out what remained of the SUV, which the Florida Highway Patrol said veered off the shoulder for unknown reasons, slammed into trees, flipped over and burst into flames.

Hill told First Coast News what remained looked like a crumpled tin can.

Hill and Nelson were too late to save Daniel Dufek, 31, of Lake City, FL, but wanted to pull his body from the charred wreckage. His family deserved that dignity, they reasoned.

Suddenly, as they worked to free Dufek, Hill saw movement in the flames.

“Steve noticed there was a baby in backseat, and said, ‘Oh my God, there’s a baby,’” Nelson told First Coast News, choking with emotion. “ At first we did not see the baby. The flames were up — they were up.”

Somehow, Dufek’s 1-year-old daughter, Ava, had survived the crash.

The flames were licking at the baby’s head, surrounding it. Without regard for his own safety, “I just jumped back in, over the deceased father,” Hill said.

Moments after freeing the baby from her car seat, the gas tank exploded.

Hill soothed the cooing, crying baby. “I’m here,” he recalled saying. “It’s OK, baby.”

There’s only one reason he and and Nelson were on that stretch of I-95, Hill told First Coast News.

“God put me there for a reason, put me and Jason there for a reason, obviously — to save that little baby,”he said.

“Thank God, thank God,” Nelson echoed. “It was like perfect timing.”

Ava sustained at least four broken bones, abrasions to one of her ears and forehead, and bleeding in the brain. She was rushed to University of Florida Health in Gainesville, where she was expected to undergo surgery Monday. Her condition is not immediately known.

The two heroes are expected back in Michigan Wednesday, where they will be honored by their employer.

“What a horrible accident this was and our prayers are with the family for their loss and for little Ava’s recovery and healing,” David Corrigan, president of the moving company, said in an email to The Oakland Press. “All of us at Corrigan Moving are very proud and extremely grateful for the timing and actions of Jason and Steve.”

Below, watch Hill and Nelson recall the experience on First Coast News.