10-year-old saves younger brother in car fire

 

(WBIR - LOUDON COUNTY) A Loudon County family is safe after a car fire surprised them on the ride home. They can thank their 10-year-old son.

On Thursday night, Sonya Thomas Brown and her family were driving southbound along Interstate 75 close to the Lenoir City exit. They ran into car troubles with their 2000 Volkswagen Golf.

"We were on the interstate heading home and we heard a pop when our car started bogging down," said Sonya.

The car started to smoke from underneath. Eventually, it caught fire. Ten-year-old Isaac Brown made it out of the car with his mother and father, but his 4-year-old brother, Uri, was still trapped in the back seat.

"When I was hopping out of the car, I couldn't get my seat to become unjammed, I couldn't move it," said Sonya.

Isaac quickly jumped back into the car to help his little brother.

"I had to crawl over the seat into the back seat and unhook him, and his clothes were like stuck in the seat buckle. ...I had to yank the top of his car seat," said Isaac.

Once he pulled Uri out of the back seat, they hopped over the guardrail to safety.

Their car started to move into traffic while on fire.

"It went across both lanes of the side we were on, down the median, and across the other two lanes and it hit the guard rail and exploded," explained Sonya.

Multiple personal items were lost in that fire.

"I looked over at Isaac and he was upset about losing his football stuff, but he said, Mom, we are alive. That's all that matters," said Sonya.
Sonya said insurance will not cover the car fire, but her whole family is staying positive. She said they're leaning on each other to make it through this tough time.