freeway fire

A

aaron_wade

Well-known member
seen a man trapped inside the car that was on fire. seems like everyone was helping out to save this man's life! pray that he made it out okay. he had to get transported via helicopter to the hospital. major reality check for me.

peace.
 
I had a scary situation on the 91 in Yorba Linda some years ago when a friend and I were first on the scene of a four vehicle accident with one flipped upside-down in the tall, dry median grass. By the time we found a way to flip Eastbound to Westbound and got back to the pick-up truck, it was partially enveloped in flames.

A passing trucker gave us a five-gallon C02 extinguisher, which we emptied into the flaming engine compartment through the wheel arch, to almost no effect. The doors were both jammed shut and we couldn't kick in the rear window because the bed obstructed us and the windshield was buried into the now flaming grass. We tried to work at the rear of the truck to flip it over with some other bystanders but it just rotated on the roof. It was really scary and frustrating not to be able to get in there.

The fire department rolled up shortly thereafter and rather slowly started to extinguish the truck and sizable grass fire around it. It was a foregone conclusion that whoever was inside was done for, so we set about trying to find the trucker to return his fire extinguisher.

Just about then a man staggered out of the darkness behind the accident scene to inform us that the burned out truck was his and that there was no one else in there. He had a pretty good laceration on his forehead and was a little disoriented, but seemed otherwise unhurt. I felt really good when we left knowing that nobody died in that wreck - it was a very long five or ten minutes watching helplessly from the sidelines as that truck burned.

Hope your guy was as fortunate!

e
 
.

.

A couple years ago, I was working as a security guard at our airport, and was driving around the airport beltway on the way to my post when a call came in on the radio. One of the other guards saw a fire from one of the cars in my zone.

I was about a minute away, so radioed in that I was almost on the scene, what to do? The orders were to clear the area of people and wait for the fire truck, which was 4 or 5 minutes away.

I get to this car, which is a 70's era dodge of some sort, with driver and passenger doors wide open, flames shooting out from under the hood, and the passenger compartment filled with smoke. There was nobody around, so I got a little closer to the car, and realized: what if someone were in the vehicle?

I looked at my watch, and back at the car. I'd seen the fire dept drill and knew the constraints they had to work with to get to my location, and they weren't going to be there in time before the car was engulfed in flame. I said **** it and ran to the car, and yelled, "Is anyone in there? Can anyone hear me?"

No answer. If they were passed out, of course I'd get no response. I took another breath and got in the passenger side, feeling around because the interior was filled with black smoke. Nobody in the front seat or on the floor; I backed out and took a couple of breaths, then wrenched open the back door and felt around the back seat. There were packages in there, which felt like presents, but no bodies!

I got out and backed away, and could now see that fire had gotten through the front panel and was melting the steering wheel and starting to burn the front seat. It was very hot. At that point, the firemen showed up, pushed me back, and doused the car and the vehicles around it.

I got in a lot of trouble for getting in the car, but I didn't care. If someone had been in there, and I hadn't done what I could to get them out, I'd have been unable to look at myself in the mirror for the rest of my life. Scary stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top