Jon Dorenbos cleaned out his car after returning in December from a trip with his wife and daughter to Ojai, a picturesque California town in the valley of mountains about 90 minutes north of Los Angeles.
But for some reason, Dorenbos neglected to remove a blanket from the trunk. And that oversight — along with quick thinking and a series of events that placed the former Eagles long snapper exactly where he was needed — helped Dorenbos save a stranger’s life last month.
“I don’t know why that huge blue fleece blanket was in our car,” he said. “Normally, we wouldn’t have had a blanket that size.”
Dorenbos, who made two Pro Bowls and last played for the Eagles in 2016, used the blanket to save a restaurant owner in Huntington Beach, Calif., after she became engulfed in flames when her pants caught fire from a butane gas heater while waiting tables.
“The best analogy that I can use for what I saw is a stunt person running out of a burning building in a movie,” Dorenbos said. “She ran out and started spinning and screaming and her arms went over her head and the flames were over her head. Her hair caught on fire.
“I’ve never heard the scream of someone screaming for their life. It’s definitely a scream that you’re not going to forget. It’s a scream like no other.”
Dorenbos and his wife, Annalise Dale, had called their babysitter earlier that night on a whim to see if she could watch their 2-year-old daughter, Amaya. The sitter was available, allowing the parents to go grocery shopping. After they finished shopping, Dorenbos thought they would head home but his wife suggested they grab dinner.
Normally, they would eat at a restaurant near the water, but this time they picked a spot near the grocery store. The only available table was on the patio, and it was a chilly night.
“I don’t know if the East Coast is going to agree with this, but we think it gets cold when it gets into the high-60s,” Dorenbos said. “It’s freezing.”
So Dorenbos returned to his car and grabbed that blanket he forgot to put away. As Dorenbos returned to their restaurant, Ana Nakao ran out of the Japanese restaurant she owns with her husband as the flames covered her body.
A family with two young children tried to help by pouring water on Nakao, but it was to no avail.
“This woman just started running into no one,” Dorenbos said. “I guess you just hope that someone would do that for my wife or myself. I just ran over there, grabbed the blanket and did what I could.”
Dorenbos smothered the flames with the blanket.
Nakao remains hospitalized with second- and third-degree burns on her legs and buttocks that required skin grafting. The restaurant posted on social media on Sunday that she was able to walk several feet with the help of a walker. A friend launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her medical bills while the restaurant remains closed.
“I’ve cried every day for a week and yesterday was the first day I didn’t,” Dorenbos said. “Yesterday, I Googled, ‘How long does it take for someone to burn to death?’ Usually, they say it’s like 60 to 90 seconds because you go into shock, you start breathing in the fumes, and then that’s pretty much it. … I would say she was on fire for probably 30 seconds. That’s a long time.”
“I’m really happy that we got there in time so the fire didn’t burn her face. All of this other stuff you can cover up.”
Dorenbos’ football career ended after a routine physical following a trade from the Eagles to the New Orleans Saints discovered an aortic aneurysm, which required open-heart surgery and sent Dorenbos into retirement.
Away from football, Dorenbos continued his career as a professional magician — which he began studying as a teenager to distract himself from the pain of his father murdering his mother — and became a motivational speaker. He’s been a contestant on America’s Got Talent, was a regular on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and a best-selling author.
Dorenbos has used his story to inspire others and this, he said, is hard to put into words.
“When it was all said and done, the firemen came and left, and I sat at the table and said, ‘Holy crap. That just happened,’” he said. “The only other time I said that was after I had lunch with my dad after 28 years and forgave him. I got home and looked at my wife and said the exact same thing.”
“Look, I’ve had an interesting life. Part of it is you just show up and give yourself a chance. When it was all said and done, I was really proud of my wife and I and what we did and how we did it. I wish the outcome was different for Ana, but I’m really proud that we got there.”
