Kosher diner owners help save lives in Illinois wreck

Brothers hailed as heroes for pulling passengers from fiery car crash in suburban Chicago

NEW YORK (JTA) — Brothers Ken and Daniel Hechtman, owners of a kosher diner, helped saved several people from a fiery wreck in suburban Chicago.

While driving back Sunday night from their kosher diner in Skokie, a semi-truck in front of them on the Edens Expressway in Northfield swerved into another car, causing an explosion.

Daniel Hechtman, 54, ran to the truck and pulled a passenger from the truck. Ken Hechtman, 60, pulled a mother and her 10-year-old daughter from the car, which was under the truck. Both sustainted more serious injuries and burns.

“I heard the screaming and there was nothing else in my mind (but) to run toward the voices,” Ken Hechtman told the Chicago Tribune. “There was no time to think. It’s adrenaline. It’s all adrenaline.”

The Jewish brothers, who were uninjured, are co-owners of Ken’s Diner. They are being called heroes.

Ken Hechtman said he doesn’t consider himself a hero and that everything happened so fast.

“Everyone keeps talking about ‘Hero, hero, hero,’ ” he told the Tribune. “Now that I think about it, it was stupid. Who runs toward a flaming truck that’s exploding?”