A homeless man saved the day for a family in Pensacola after pulling a man from a burning SVU last week.
Veteran, Freddie Finkley, 56, saved the life of 34-year-old Eric Lopez, who had a head-on collision at Cervantes Street and Haynes Street.
This has not been the first time that Finkley was involved in saving someone’s life since the time he has been homeless for half a decade.
“It’s just me. It’s just my nature. I’m not like everybody else,” Finkley said.
Finkley was a witness of the fiery crash and jumped into action, saving Lopez’s life. “I ran down there and flames started coming through the dashboard. I went in there and I tried,” Finkley said.
“He said, ‘Leave me.’ I said, ‘I can’t leave you. You’ll burn up.’ So I pried his hands loose from the steering wheel. This other guy came, and we picked him up and toted him up the bridge.”
Finkley met Lopez’s grandmother for the first time, she flagged Finkley down from his normal spot under the I-110 overpass on Cervantes.
“Anybody who would do that has to be a really good-hearted person,” Sandra McFall said. She thanked him repeatedly for his actions.
“You’re truly God’s angel,” she said. “I praise God that you were here because you saved my grandson and that means everything to me.”
Lopez is doing better and is dealing with bruising and lung issues since the crash, but it could have gone bad if not for Finkley, McCall said.
Finkley did not take the credit for the rescue but said it was divine intervention. “The good Lord. God,” he said. “That one man put me there.”
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