Are girls more trouble than boys? Read this.

A few days after Thanksgiving, Eric Heffelmire of Vienna, VA, was in his detached garage trying to fix some corroded brake lines on his truck when the unthinkable happened. He recalls, "I was on my back, face up, when apparently the jack slipped and (the truck) fell down on me. It pinned me." Gasoline spilled, and there was an explosion. "I thought they'll be pulling out a dead body later in the evening," he said.

                                                                                    Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department
Eric's 19-year-old daughter Charlotte was home from the Air Force Academy for Thanksgiving break. She saw the truck drop on her dad and catch fire, and still can't explain what happened next. In her own words, "I lifted the truck the first time. He (dad) said 'OK, you almost got it.' Finally I managed to get him out. It was some crazy strength, and I pulled him out." But that's not the end of the story. Once her Dad was safe, Charlotte got into the burning truck and drove it, on three wheels, out of the garage. "I didn't want the entire house to explode with the truck, so I started the truck, put it in four wheel drive and just drove out." She then closed the garage doors to help contain the fire, and went inside her house and got everybody out, picking up her sister's baby first.  By now flames were shooting out of the garage, so Charlotte grabbed a garden hose to knock the flames away from their house until fire engines arrived. "I just did what I had to do," she says. "I don't feel like a big hero or anything." Her heroism earned her a life-saving award from the fire department, and her dad's eternal gratitude.