NILES — This week, a Niles man reunited with a man whom he calls his “hometown hero” in person for the first time in 47 years.

In May 1972, 16-year-old Tim Fletcher crashed his motorcycle into a vehicle outside of Wonderland Cinema. His bike’s gas cap popped off, soaking Tim in gasoline, and the heat from the fire started by the crash lit him on fire.

Roger Briney, then 18, was unloading a truck full of cement bags nearby. He watched Tim hit the vehicle and rushed over with another man to put out the fire that was burning 87 percent of Tim’s body.

Nearly five decades later, Briney and Fletcher reunited. Neither had seen the other since Fletcher was in the hospital, in between for one of his 13 surgeries.

Their Tuesday meeting location was simple — the Hob Nob on S. 11th Street — but the meeting’s impact appeared enormous on Fletcher, Briney and Debbie Fletcher, Tim’s wife. All three wiped away tears as they recounted Fletcher’s crash and their lives since.

“It’s interesting to feel the dynamics of having a hero in your life,” Fletcher said. “For 47 years, I have watched television shows where people have been reconnected with those people who were so instrumental in saving their life in a moment.”

The Fletchers presented Briney a copy of Tim’s book of his experiences in a burn unit, “Scarred for Life!” with a personal message written inside.

Long ago, Briney moved away from Niles, and he is currently living in Virginia, but the veteran and former law enforcement officer and firefighter was happy to be back meeting with someone he helped.

“To be able to meet Roger, I don’t know I can put into words what it means to me,” Fletcher said.

Briney said his actions in 1972 were not heroic, but reactive.

“God had me at the right spot at the right time,” he said.

During the trio’s meeting, the Fletchers and Briney discussed their memories of Tim’s accident for the first time together.

Both Briney and Fletcher said they only had bits of memory from the event. Together, they worked together to better understand what took place with more clarity.

“All I remember is when [Briney] said, ‘Lay down and roll,’” Fletcher said. “Do you remember what I asked you?”

“No,” Briney responded.

“I do. I said, ‘Which way.’” Tim said while laughing. “I can hear it in my brain.”

By talking out their perspectives of the accident, Fletcher was able to better understand how Briney helped save his life, and Briney was able to understand the impact he had on Tim and Debbie.

“I’m very fortunate you ran to me, because I probably would not have survived much longer,” Fletcher said.

“Who knows?” responded Briney. “You can ‘what-if?’ something to death.”

Regardless of what moments allowed Tim’s accident to play out as it did, Debbie said she and her high school sweetheart know one thing: Without Briney, their lives would be different.

“As an 18-year-old boy, he ran towards saving [Tim’s] life,” she said about Briney. “He’s quite a hero in our eyes.”