SEATTLE, Wash. — Phillip Moore was eating lunch at a Columbia City restaurant Thursday with his wife and daughter when an SUV slammed through the wall.
Only after he was dragged out of the burning building did he see his daughter.
He had been looking for her in the restaurant, which was full of flames.
"My eyes, I couldn't open my eyes. The burning inside my eyelids was so horrific,” said Moore.
He couldn’t initially find his daughter, who says she ran from the chaos to a back room.
"I didn't know it was a car, and it just came through the wall and it exploded,” said 7-year-old Meara Moore.
“It was scary,” she added.
Moore thought his daughter was trapped under the SUV.
"I really thought she was dead, and I thought this is it. My life's finished. So, I wasn't really bothered what happened to me, to be honest with you,” said Moore.
And so he put his face into the flames to search.
Her mother, Kasandra Moore, saidshe blacked out and doesn't remember what happened – but she ended up outside.
As Philip searched for his daughter, a firefighter came to Maera's rescue.
"He grabbed my hand from the kitchen and he pulled me outside," said Meara. "I just wanted to get back to mommy and daddy."
Now the family is together again.
"Oh, I'm so happy, She'll probably sleep with me for the next six months," said Kasandra Moore, smiling.
Moore told KIRO 7 Maera suffered lacerations and bruises in the accident.
Seattle police detectives are still investigating what led up to the crash.
KIRO
