A Valley father and his 14-year-old daughter are being hailed as heroes after rescuing six people from burning vehicles on Carefree Highway Saturday night.
According to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, investigators are still determining the cause of the crash.
Casey Reinke and his daughter, Elianna, were traveling around 10:30 p.m. when they noticed a car rush by them. Within about a minute, Reinke claimed, they spotted what appeared to be strobe lights in the sky, followed by a violent impact.
Two vehicles collided and burst into flames, trapping six persons.
“She saw it and she’s like, ‘Dad, they need help,'” Reinke said.
Reinke claimed Elianna quickly contacted 911 and tried to stop traffic, pointing him to the wreck.
“She snatched my cellphone. She says, ‘I’m going to stop traffic and call 911. “You go get them,” Reinke replied.
He claimed to have helped rescue one person from a vehicle initially. The most serious case, he claimed, was a truck with five passengers still inside as fire surged up from behind.
Other drivers stopped to help, including two men Reinke named as Mark and Tim, and the strangers immediately formed a team.
“In the midst of the chaos, it almost felt like unspoken orchestration,” Reinke stated.
They broke the windows and attempted to reach the persons stuck on the passenger side, but the flames made this impossible. Reinke stated that the group then flipped the truck to approach them.
“I caught hold of her. “The other guys grabbed arms, and we just kind of dragged her out,” Reinke added.
Firefighters arrived soon after and took all six injured people to the hospital.
One of the families is now openly thanking the rescuers. Jeffrey Johnson stated that his mother and other relatives were in one of the automobiles.
“I thank the Lord that they were there,” Johnson stated. “It’s amazing to hear.”
Johnson said his family members were injured but are recuperating, and he is still surprised that strangers came in without hesitation.
“To have a group of people that didn’t know each other … come together and make that happen in such a quick time — it saved lives,” Johnson stated.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to support some of the crash victims.
According to Reinke, a firefighter later told Elianna that onlookers’ actions were the difference between life and death.
“The group of people here are the reason those six people are still alive,” Reinke was informed.
At home, Reinke and Elianna are just father and daughter; on the softball diamond, they are coach and player. They said that on Saturday night, they became teammates in something far grander.
“Nobody I’d trust more,” Reinke added.
“I just played my role, and he played his role,” Elianna added.
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