4 People Pulled From Flaming Car Wreck : Rescue: Two Torrance maintenance workers and another motorist are credited with saving a woman and 3 children moments before the vehicle exploded. Car running a red light is blamed for collision.

Robert Martin and Jerry Comer cannot understand what all the fuss is about.

All they did Monday was pull three children and an injured woman from a burning car just before it exploded into flames.

The actions of the two quick-thinking Torrance city maintenance workers and an unidentified helper saved four lives at the scene of a three-car accident, police said.

“Bystanders were hollering at these guys to get out of there, that the car was going to blow, but they ignored them,” said Sgt. Gary Webb. “They just kept at it until everyone was out.”

According to witnesses, the traffic accident occurred shortly after 1 p.m. at the intersection of Madrona Avenue and Emerald Street in Torrance, where the drivers of a red Buick and a tan Plymouth van were stopped at a traffic light.

The driver of a third car, a red Chevy Camaro, was headed southbound on Madrona and did not see that the light was red, Webb said. The Camaro slammed into the rear of the Buick, forcing it into the van and starting a fire under the Buick.

Helen Le Ly, 35, and the three children riding with her were trapped inside the Buick by the force of the impact.

Within moments of the crash, Martin and Comer arrived on the scene.

“The car was up in the air, sitting about three or four feet up, against the van,” Martin, 31, said. “I could see there were kids in there and the mother was in there, gasping for air . . . so we got the doors open and I started handing kids to Jerry.”

A third man, who Martin and Comer said was driving a car with Colorado license plates, stopped and helped one child escape from the burning car.

Moments before the fire flared, engulfing the car, Martin lifted the injured woman from the car and carried her to safety.

“It didn’t seem super life-threatening to me,” Martin said. “We just acted on instinct.”

Randy Tran, 5, suffered a small cut over one eye. Ann Ly, 9, came out of the crash with a bloody nose. Long Ly, 12, was not injured. Helen Le Ly of Lawndale was treated and released at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Harbor City.

The van’s driver, John Pugh, 26, of Long Beach was unharmed. The driver of the Camaro, Michael Armstrong, 38, of Hawthorne suffered a split lip.

“I just don’t think we did that much,” Comer, 56, said. “Everybody is making too much over this. I think anybody would have done the same thing we did.”

No citations have been issued, police said.