"I have died once in 1991, in that fire. Now I'm living my second life," said Mamatniyaz. "I must do good things to pay it back."

He saved dozens of people in the years to come, including local drivers, passengers of different ethnic groups, Kazakh passers-by, and US tourists. Most were in deadly car accidents on desert highways, according to media reports.

"My papa told me, ‘Uygur people, Han people, Kazakh people, outsiders, foreigners, no difference. We are all human.' I'd help whoever is in need," said Mamatniyaz, who holds his father's last words as his life guidance: "Do the good, not the bad," and "Help others, and others will help back."

His father, Mamat Niyaz, a coal miner, was a local hero himself before an accidental death in 2004. In 1971, before Mamatniyaz came to the world, his father dashed into a collapsing coal mine in Urumqi to save several trapped men. A heavy machine dropped down on his right hand, which almost smashed off three fingers. Niyaz could not bend those fingers for the rest of his life.

After Niyaz rushed underground to save colleagues during another coal mine collapse in Hotan in 1978, the doctors wanted to amputate his gangrenous left leg, which got stuck during the rescue, to save him. But Niyaz firmly rejected that. Courage and luck brought him back to life, but he lost the ability to move even slightly fast forever. And all his life, Niyaz helped about 80 lives escape death from various accidents deep under the ground.

"Papa saved more people than I did," said Mamatniyaz, surnamed after his father's full name. "As his son, I must carry on his spirit."

On July 30, 2009, Mamatniyaz broke the window of a burning car on a collision site on a highway 6 km from Hotan, pulled an unconscious man out, drove him to the hospital, and carried him all the way to the emergency room, using his disabled arms that normally could not lift weight more than a dozen kilograms.

"When I'm saving people, I get unlimited strength," says Mamatniyaz, "but once they are safe, I even find it hard to move my fingers. I don't know why."

The saved knew the difference, according to Tianshan Net (www.ts.cn), a news website in Xinjiang. "Big brother," cries Lei Ming to Mamatniyaz in hospital after waking up. "Without you, there would be no me."