Man pulls 2 teens from burning car after train crash

A man from Iowa is being praised by law enforcement after saving two teenage brothers from a burning car following a train crash.

As he was driving home from work on July 14, Alex Horak said he saw a flash of dust in the corner of his eye — just enough to encourage him to turn down a gravel road he passes almost every day to investigate.

“I saw the train was coming to a stop. It was slowing down. I work in rail, so I know that’s not a good sign. I get a little bit closer around this hill right up here, and I see the car down here,” Horak said.

The car, located about a dozen feet from the road, was mangled and crushed from a train accident. Inside were two brothers, ages 12 and 16.

Within seconds of Horak arriving at the scene, the car burst into flames, just feet away from thousands of gallons of ethanol on the stopped train.

“It all happened so fast that I didn’t have time to really weigh the options. I just knew something had to get done. I couldn’t leave the kids in there,” Horak said.

His actions saved the boys’ lives.

“By him removing those boys from the vehicle, I have no doubt that he saved them from either very critical burns or possibly even death,” said Kossuth County Sheriff Roger Fisher.

The scene remains vivid in Horak’s memory, marked by charred grass, shattered windows, and broken eyeglasses left behind.

But Horak doesn’t see himself as a hero.

“I just did what anybody else should have done. I mean, I saw somebody in trouble. There was something I could do about it, and I just acted,” he said.

Fisher said in the coming weeks, the Kossuth County Sheriff’s Office will host a ceremony recognizing the quick actions of Norak, alongside two emergency communications operators.

Both victims are recovering at a hospital in Minnesota. They sustained head and upper-body injuries in the crash and needed multiple surgeries before starting the long road to recovery.