Good Samaritan put his life at risk to extinguish flames during fiery wreck
SAN ANTONIO - Kenneth Ramirez thought he was doing a free routine battery check for a customer at Advanced Auto Parts on North General McMullen Drive. But Fox San Antonio’s Ryan Wolf helped set up the fake maintenance checkup as part of a CASH FOR KINDNESS surprise.
“How are you?” Wolf asked as he rushed over to Ramirez while he worked under the hood of a car.
“I’m Ryan Wolf from Fox San Antonio,” he added as Ramirez looked on with a surprised look.
“Do you have any idea what's going on?” Wolf asked.
“No, sir!” he said with a nervous laugh.
“Daniel here doesn't need a new battery,” Wolf told him. “He's part of this CASH FOR KINDNESS surprise.”
Ramirez still couldn’t figure out what was going on. Wolf shared the real reason why he was there.
“I'm here because of what happened Christmas week,” he told him with a big smile. “You were a hero on that day."
Ramirez was finishing up a shift at West Side store on December 23rd when something went terribly wrong.
“All we heard was a loud bang,” he recalled. “The lights shut off."
Instincts kicked in when the 31-year-old saw flames up the road. Armed with two fire extinguishers from the store, Ramirez raced to a wrecked Blue Dodge Journey that he saw on fire.
“The flames were already on top of the motor, and it was already going on the bottom towards the gas tank,” the employee of 4 months told Wolf. “I think the car would have actually exploded and other people would have gotten injured."
With the help of another Good Samaritan at the scene, 3 members of the same family were rescued. 8-year-old Marae Vidales tragically lost her life. Police charged her mother, 34-year-old Nicole Ovalle, with intoxication manslaughter.
“He truly is a hero," Marta Macias, Marae’s aunt said.
She said she never got the chance to thank Ramirez for putting his life at risk that day to save her family.
“I want to thank him from the bottom my heart,” Macias told Wolf over a Zoom video call. “My sister wants to thank them as well for getting her out of the car and for getting my niece out of the car."
Wolf shared how thankful the little girl’s family was for his heroic actions. He was heartbroken to learn he couldn’t save them all.
“I'm just trying to inspire others and I just like to do good deeds,” he told Wolf. “Because if ever my family is trapped or anything like that, like my mom gets into a wreck or you know, one of my family members, I would want somebody to stop and help them as well."
Fox San Antonio rewarded Ramirez for his selfless actions with CASH FOR KINDNESS.
“Put out your hand Kenny, I've got a surprise for you," Wolf said.
He handed him a stack of $100 bills.
"$100, $200, $300, $400, $500,” Ramirez counted. He paused for a moment after he clutched the money in his hands.
“It feels, it feels very good,” he told Wolf in an emotional tone “And it's a blessing from the Lord that I see what I'm doing is helping other people and nobody else really got hurt."
Click here to nominate someone you know for the CASH FOR KINDNESS award
