An 87-year-old woman was fortunate to be alive Thursday after her car spun off the road and plunged into a flooded creek near Holly Springs.

She was lucky because Cherokee County firefighter Michael Axford had just left work and he and three other passersby saw the near-death accident, said Tim Cavender, spokesman for the Cherokee fire department.

The four good Samaritans got the woman out of the car, Cavender said. Then other firefighters arrived — apparently somebody had called 911 — and deployed a 35-foot ladder to help get the woman up the steep bank, he said.

The accident and rescue happened at 8:30 a.m. at Toonigh Creek on Holly Springs Parkway near the Home Depot, Cherokee County Battalion Chief Ricky Collett said.

Collett said that the rescue “was truly a Christmas miracle.”

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (center) is flanked by GOP whip Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. (left) and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, as Thune speak to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. Earlier Tuesday, the Senate passed the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

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