When Tyler Bynum of Spring Grove approached a vehicle that caught fire after being involved in a high-speed wreck Dec. 10, he genuinely was surprised to find that not only had both occupants survived, but they did not have any critical injuries.

Fox Lake fire crews were dispatched about 8 p.m. to Route 12 near State Park Road after witnesses reported a car being driven erratically at high rates of speed.

Bynum said he was driving home with his son when a car tried to pass his car traveling more than 100 mph.

After the car passed, Bynum said, it hit the curb, went 15 feet in the air, hit some power lines and rolled down an embankment in between two houses after catching fire.

Bynum said at that point, he crossed downed power lines and discovered the passenger unresponsive and the driver alert but not knowing what had happened. He said the driver had not been wearing a seat belt, but the passenger was.

After Bynum knocked on the doors of both homes near the crash, he said one resident came outside with a fire extinguisher and put out the fire before emergency service agencies arrived.

Terry Chasse said the vehicle came to rest on his property. He then ran into his home and got his fire extinguisher to put out the fire on the car. He said the driver admitted to drinking and started screaming.

“He was booking,” Chasse said. “I’m just happy they’re alive. ... It was almost like a scene out of a movie, the way the car went down the hill.”

One person was taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, and the other was taken to Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital. McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputy Sandra Rogers said both people’s injuries were not life-threatening. The driver, Keith Wilson, was charged with driving under the influence.

Bynum attributed his response to his experience in the Army and first aid training he recently had participated in for work.

“I’m genuinely surprised they lived through that,” Bynum said. “It blows my mind.”

The mother of the vehicle’s passenger, Gayle Graham, praised the actions of Bynum, Chasse and Louise Wade for responding to the scene before crews could arrive. She also voiced her shock that her son suffered no burns and had all of his limbs intact.

“Miracles do happen,” Graham said.