A South Carolina city has something to be proud of this week:

Two men braved a burning car to save a stranger seconds before the car exploded into an inferno because, they said, they couldn't live with themselves if they hadn't acted.

"I just couldn't stand by and watch while someone burned to death," said Jason Whittle, 36, a city of Columbia traffic safety officer.

Michael Samuels, 37, saw sparks near the car. "She was in the car with power lines on top of it and people were shouting, ‘Don't touch the car! Don't touch the car!' But somebody had to get that woman out. My heart told me to go."

"Within a minute after Whittle and a civilian, Michael Samuels, pulled the woman from the car, it exploded," reports The State.

–File photo courtesy of Sun Star