Strangers rescue baby from burning car as mother screamed in horror

The car pictured after the fire. Credit: Media Wales

When two men pulled over to help a woman whose car was on fire, they soon realised her 10-month-old baby was trapped inside, and without a second thought, they dove into the car which was engulfed in flames to rescue the child.

Wes Beynon and his uncle Mark had been travelling along the A465 Heads of the Valleys road towards Merthyr Tydfil when they noticed a distressed woman stood on the hard shoulder with smoke coming from her car. They pulled over and soon realised her baby was trapped inside.

"Me and my uncle Mark saw a young girl, probably in her early to mid 20s by the passenger door, she appeared to be distressed," Wes said. "I thought, well, you know, that's not a safe place to be, so I pulled into the exit.

"Myself and my uncle both jumped out of my vehicle, and I started running down to her, because you could see flames coming out of the side of the bonnet, and up to the centre of the bonnet.

"She was screaming that her baby is in the car. She was trying to open the passenger the door, but it was clearly locked or jammed shut.

"I ran around to the driver's door, opened it, climbed in, and pushed the passenger door open with help from my uncle who was outside the vehicle.

Wesley Beynon (pictured) and his uncle helped pull a baby from a burning car on the Heads of the Valleys road. Credit: Media Wales

"I unclipped the baby, and my uncle then pulled the baby out the passenger seat. 30 seconds to one minute later, it would have been a different story. So you can obviously understand it.

"All the engine bay, the bonnet, everything was on fire. Me and Mark sort of worked together as a team, quite naturally, without thinking.

"The mother, her name is Alex, was distraught, as you'd imagine. We got out of the way of the fire and you could hear mighty bangs and smashing sounds from the glass."

Alex and Wez then phoned the emergency services, and directed traffic into the fast lane to keep things moving.

"I would do the same thing for someone else again tomorrow, because I hope that if I was in that position, somebody would do it for me," Wes added.

"A lot of people would look at me in my appearance - I am covered in piercings and tattoos, I'm a motorcycle club member - and say, 'oh, he's trouble', you know? But I guess this just goes to show, people should never judge a book by its cover."