Man Deemed ‘Hero’ In Midnight Rescue

But this wasn’t his first time helping others

By Emily Weaver
Daily Record of Dunn

Twenty-four-year-old Brett Baker was driving home from the gym early Tuesday morning, July 29, when he saw an SUV speed around him and crash into a grove of trees. The wreck happened shortly after midnight along a stretch of U.S. Highway 401 across from Rawls Camp Road. The often busy highway was dead and silent except for that crash. And it was dark — except for an explosion.

Baker saw the SUV burst into flames as he passed it in his rearview mirror. No one else was around. Baker could have kept going, but he stopped and called 911. Then, he said, he saw the car’s door open and heard cries for “help.”

The driver was stuck inside with a broken leg.

Baker rushed to the car and pulled the man out. It took three pulls, but he finally got him away from the car as the flames overtook it.

“There was just no one else there and he was just saying, ‘help, help, help’ and I couldn’t just let him stay there,” Baker said.

First responders at the scene called him a hero, but Baker insisted that they were the heroes; he was just doing what he had to do.

“I can tell you for a fact, if he did not intervene by the time we got there, if that patient couldn’t get out of the car, he would have died because the car was fully involved (in fire),” said Capt. Sal Mercogliano, of the Northwest Harnett Volunteer Fire Department.

Mercogliano was second on the scene and first in command that night. 

“We got there and the car was fully involved by the time we arrived,” he said. “Our first-in engine was able to get a hose on it really quick. I came in on the second engine.”

Just passing by

By the time they got there the fire had spread to the trees and bushes nearby. Paramedics were treating a man lying in the front yard of a neighboring home.

“Brett was there in the yard and … I asked Brett, ‘Do you live here?’ He goes, ‘No, no, no. I was just passing by. … I just saw it happen.’” 

State Highway Patrol Trooper Christopher J. McIntosh took Baker’s statement in the back of Mercogliano’s fire engine.

McIntosh, who also works on the Buies Creek Fire Department, is a former student of Mercogliano at Campbell University. 

Rain was pouring down when McIntosh exited the fire engine and told his former teacher that he should talk to Baker “because he pulled the guy out of the burning car.”

Baker told Mercogliano that he saw the car leave the roadway and then explode into flames in his rearview mirror as he passed it.

“So, I just parked, went back in and pulled him out,” Baker said.

“The victim had a broken leg and he was able to pull him out of the car before the car got fully involved,” Mercogliano said. “And, I said, ‘Brett, you’re a hero. … If he couldn’t get himself out, he’d be dead right now. … You saved his life.’ And he was so humble.”

Mercogliano had come into contact with Baker before, but the two of them didn’t realize it in that moment. They didn’t realize it until Baker’s mother came to the scene and Mercogliano told her how her son saved the man’s life by pulling him from a burning car.

“And, she said, ‘Well, that is unbelievable. He almost died in a fire.’”

Brett Baker was 7 years old when his family’s home on Rawls Church Road caught on fire around 3 a.m. Jan. 5, 2009. Sophie, the family dog, had accidentally knocked over a heating lamp that caught the house on fire. The Bakers were awakened by the shrill chirps of smoke alarms.

“I was at that fire,” Mercogliano said. “I remember the fire. … Brett narrowly got out of the house. He came down the steps just before the fire took over everything.”

Baker watched his home burn to the ground that morning. His family lost everything. He’s had an aversion to fire ever since, but that didn’t stop him from saving a life.

‘An absolute no-brainer’

This wasn’t Baker’s first time of going out of his way to help someone else.

He was working at the Harris-Teeter in Fuquay-Varina in the summer of 2020 when he ventured outside on a very hot day to retrieve shopping carts from the parking lot. He saw a homeless man, outside, walking without shoes. 

“He was barefooted on pavement,” he said. “His feet were probably gonna be melting.”

Baker took his shoes off and gave them to the man.

“To me, it’s an absolute no-brainer. It’s like practical. This poor guy was homeless. He’s walking around with not even any socks on,” he said. “I was like, I got socks on. I can give him my shoes, I’ve still got my socks. My feet won’t be burning, you know?”

Baker had to wait for his father to bring him a pair of shoes, but he finished his shift and was named employee of the month. 

Baker was driving down the road when he came upon another wreck about a month ago.

“I was sitting at a three-way stop and a lady ran a red light and crashed right in front of me,” he said.

Another good Samaritan pulled the woman from the car. Baker freed her dogs from the wreckage and remained on dog duty, giving the pets water and shelter in his car at the scene.

Michelle Baker said she is beyond proud of her son. She works as a teacher and says that seeing someone like her son, who has a “big, big heart” and helps others without hesitation isn’t really typical for the world these days.

“I just feel like he’s a little angel,” she said. “He’s got angel wings and doesn’t realize it.”

For Brett Baker, helping others is just common sense.

“I try to make the world (one) you want to live in,” he said. “I get that from my dad. He stops and helps people a lot, too. … We’re magnets for this stuff.”

Brett Baker is the 24-year-old son of Michelle and William Baker, who live in the Fuquay-Varina part of Harnett County. He is a 2020 graduate of Southern Wake Academy. He loves movies, books, music, history and ax throwing. And every now and then — every chance he gets — he makes the world around him a better place.