Man spots car fire, helps get Mattydale woman out just as the flames spread

Shirley Nielsen was driving into her apartment complex in Mattydale when a man raced up to her and told her to get out of the car. It’s on fire, he said. She didn’t believe him at first, thinking it was just overheating. But the man insisted she get out. Just as she got out, the entire hood of her...

Shirley Nielsen was driving into her apartment complex in Mattydale when a man raced up to her and told her to get out of the car. It’s on fire, he said.

She didn’t believe him at first, thinking it was just overheating. But the man insisted she get out.

Just as she got out, the entire hood of her 1993 Buick Saber caught fire in the parking lot of Orchard Estates on Sept. 19.

“Nothing like this has ever happened to me before but I’m just glad (he) was there,” said Nielson, 74.

The man who stopped was Martin Kirby Jr., who had been delivering The Post-Standard. At first he thought Nielson’s muffler was dragging on the ground. But when he noticed sparks and smoke beneath the car, he said he knew it was going to catch fire.

David Lassman / The Post-StandardShirley Nielsen talks with her Martin Kirby at her home in Mattydale. While delivering The Post-Standard, Martin saw flames under Shirley's car as she was backing up in her parking lot. He raced over and helped get her out of the car.

“I jumped out my truck and was just like ‘get out get out your car’s on fire,” said Kirby, 24, of Liverpool. “I wasn’t worried, I was just hoping to get her out.”

Kirby stayed with Nielsen to help her call the fire department. Nielsen said heat from the flames melted the car windshield and left its front-end covered in black.

Kirby said he’s glad he could help Nielson.

“If I have it and someone needs it, I’d help them,” said Kirby who’s delivered papers to Nielsen for three years.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, Nielsen said.

“Now I’m sitting here and I don’t have any wheels so that’s the bad part of it,” Nielsen said. “ But the good part of it is that I’m alive, Marty saved my life, and he’s my hero.”

Contact Lyndra Vassar at 315-470-2259 or lvassar@syracuse.com.