MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Minnesota Air National Guardsman is being hailed as a hero for helping pull a man who was trapped out of a burning car just moments before it became fully engulfed in flames. 
 
 The Minnesota State Patrol said the incident happened at about 6:40 p.m. on I-35W and County Road D. A motorist, identified as Robert Renning, was heading southbound when he noticed a vehicle on fire nearby. He was able to get the driver, Michael Johannes’, attention and both vehicles pulled over. 
 
 “I could see the flames coming out from underneath the car on the way back,” Renning said. 
 
 By the time Renning waved him down, Johannes had smelled something odd. 
 
 Both Johannes and Renning pulled over. 
 
 But once on the shoulder the SUV automatically locked, trapping Johannes inside. 
 
 “I put it in park and that’s when I couldn’t get out,” Johannes said. 
 
 The SUV’s doors had automatically locked. Johannes could not open them. 
 
 “The flames were starting to kick out around the bottom a little bit. Starting to smoke. The interior of the car was completely filled in smoke. You couldn’t see who or what was inside,” Renning said. 
 
 The State Patrol said Renning immediately ran to the car and was able to get a car door open by bending it in half and shattering the glass. 
 
 Renning tried the car doors but they wouldn’t open. Then he saw Johannes trying to kick out the passenger side window. Renning said he knew he had to do something. 
 
 The State Patrol said Renning immediately ran to the car and was able to get a car door open by bending it in half and shattering the glass. 
 
 “I grabbed the top of the door frame and pulled until the glass shattered,” Renning said. 
 
 He then pulled Johannes to safety. 
 
 “It had to have been adrenaline. I don’t know how I did it. I truly don’t,” Renning said. 
 
 The charred frame of the car shows where Renning bent the frame with his bare hands. 
 
 Authorities said Renning was not hurt during the rescue. Johannes suffered minor smoke inhalation and a couple of minor cuts after being pulled through the shattered glass. 
 
 Renning says he is not a hero. 
 
 “I didn’t do anything anyone else wouldn’t have done at the time. It was all timing,” he said. 
 
 But that’s not the way the Johannes see it. 
 
 “I am eternally grateful for myself and my husband and my daughter that we can still be here as a family so thank you Bob,” Johannes’ wife, Lisa, said. 
 
 Michael Johannes and Robert Renning have talked by phone and Johannes says he repeatedly thanked him. 
 
 Renning says that is all that he wants, but Johannes says he also plans to take him out for a beer. 
 
 The State Patrol will be nominating Renning for a Good Samaritan award. 
 
 “He did an extraordinary deed, bending a locked car door in half of a burning car to extricate a trapped person,” said State Trooper Zachary Hill, who responded to the scene. “I feel this man deserves any and all commendation for his extraordinary life-saving measure that kept another from burning alive.” 
 
 Johannes had just purchased the 2006 Chevy Trailblazer the week before. 
 
 WCCO checked and that GM model had been the subject of two fire related calls. 
 
 GM did not return our phone call. 

 Bob Renning, 52, of Woodbury got Michael Johannes of Minneapolis out of Johannes' burning car June 29, 2014. Both were traveling south on Interstate-35W near County Road D in New Brighton when Renning noticed Johannes' car was on fire. (Courtesy of Minnesota State Patrol) 
 
 As flames licked up from beneath an SUV and smoke filled its interior, Bob Renning pried open its door to let the driver escape. 
 
 Renning credits "pure adrenaline" for giving him the strength to bend the door until the window shattered Sunday evening along Interstate 35W in New Brighton. 
 
 Renning, 52, of Woodbury said he could hear Michael Johannes, 51, of Minneapolis trying to escape through the passenger side door as the 2006 Chevy Trailblazer filled with smoke. 
 
 "He was kicking and beating the window trying to break it open from the inside," Renning said. "I knew I didn't have a lot of time." 
 
 Renning was southbound on I-35W near County Road D when he saw in his mirrors flames shooting out from beneath an SUV six or seven car-lengths behind him. 
 
 Johannes, who just bought the Trailblazer last week, said he knew he was in trouble when his brakes started to fail out and the vehicle began filling up with smoke as he drove down the freeway at 65 mph. 
 
 Renning said he slowed down to get Johannes' attention, though both pulled over about the same time, with Renning stopping about 250 feet in front of the burning vehicle. 
 
 Renning told his girlfriend, who was in the car with him, to call 911, and he bolted toward the flames. 
 
 Meanwhile, Johannes was locked inside his SUV that was quickly filling up with smoke. On Monday, he said the SUV's electrical malfunction had caused it to lock. 
 
 Since flames had begun to engulf the driver's side, he scrambled to the passenger side, kicking at the window. 
 
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 Luckily, Renning was there. 
 
 Grabbing the top of the door frame and leveraging his body against it, Renning pulled until the glass shattered. 
 
 "It was just chaos," Johannes said. "I just dove toward the light (coming in) through the window. I'm a pretty big guy and (Renning) just pulled me out." 
 
 Johannes successfully climbed out of the burning SUV, and both men moved a safe distance away. Renning said police and rescue crews quickly arrived. 
 
 "(Renning) did an extraordinary deed, bending a locked car door in half ... to extricate a trapped person," Minnesota State Patrol trooper Zachary Hill, who was at the scene, said in a statement. "I feel this man deserves any and all commendation for his extraordinary life-saving measure that kept another from burning alive." 
 
 Renning, a member of the Air National Guard, said he had "no clue" where his strength came from. 
 
 "I'm sure it was pure adrenaline," he said, adding that he left the scene unscathed. 
 
 Johannes, his wife and their 7-year-old daughter were at his wife's parents' house in Chisago County for the weekend. On Sunday night, he left his daughter with his in-laws, he said, and was driving home to be at work Monday morning at 3M, where he works in the abrasives division. His wife was already home when his vehicle caught fire. 
 
 After rescue crews left the scene and he was treated for minor smoke inhalation, cuts and scrapes, Johannes and his wife went back to his in-laws, where he said he gave his daughter a big hug. 
 
 Sunday's incident marks Johannes' second totaled vehicle in two weeks. He said that a week before he bought the Trailblazer, someone had crashed into his former vehicle, which was parked in front of his house. 
 
 "We're going to take our time in selecting our next vehicle," Johannes said. 
 
 Raya Zimmerman can be reached at 651-228-5524. Follow her at Twitter.com/RayaZimmerman. 
 
 
 
 
 

– A Minnesota man demonstrated superhuman strength at exactly the right time Sunday. Air National Guardsman Robert Renning, 52, was driving along the interstate around New Brighton when he saw flames underneath an SUV about six car-lengths behind him, reports Twin Cities Pioneer Press. He slowed to get driver Michael Johannes' attention—Johannes’ brakes had started to fail as he drove 65mph, and he had just started to smell something odd as Renning flagged him down—but both drivers were able to pull over to the side of the road. Then an electrical malfunction caused the Chevy Trailblazer's doors to lock and trap Johannes inside, and that was when Renning’s adrenaline kicked in. "The interior of the car was completely filled in smoke. You couldn’t see who or what was inside," Renning tells WCCO. After asking his girlfriend to call 911, he ran toward the SUV as Johannes tried to kick out the passenger side window. Renning "grabbed the top of the door frame and pulled until the glass shattered," he says, then pulled Johannes out. Renning was unharmed and Johannes suffered only minor cuts and smoke inhalation. For his trouble, Renning was nominated for a Good Samaritan Award by the state police and will also be rewarded with a beer, courtesy of Johannes. Johannes’ previous car had been totaled two weeks before, and he'd just purchased the used 2006 SUV. "We're going to take our time in selecting our next vehicle," he notes. It's not clear what caused the Trailblazer to catch on fire, but WCCO says that model has been the subject of two fire-related recalls.