Skyon fire!

Combat Edge, Oct, 2004 by Anton Komatz

Freemont County, Colorado, website at: http://www.fremontcounty.org/wildfireinformation.htm

Accident Triage

A decision I made at a traffic accident 11 years ago sealed the fate of two, but saved others. My family and I were approaching a controlled intersection on a four-lane divided highway in a small city in Wisconsin when it happened. A small red sports car, traveling in the opposite direction, had already stopped for a red light when it was hit from behind by an Oldsmobile traveling at approximately 45 to 50 miles per hour. The force of the impact pushed it through the intersection (across four lanes of crossing traffic) and came to rest on the other side of the intersection in the right hand lane, with the Oldsmobile coming to rest about 10 feet behind. The impact crushed the rear of the sports car, rupturing its fuel tank and igniting the fuel that was spilling from it. Thick oily smoke rose from the fireball, and the flames completely engulfed the sports car before it had even rolled to a stop near the curb.

I immediately pulled my van to the side of the road, put my emergency flashers on, and ran toward the now burning sports car. In the seconds that it took me to exit my vehicle and cover the 40 yards or so to the accident scene, the fire had spread below and around the sports car and had turned the windows black with soot from the inside. I instinctively reached for the door handle, but the wind switched and I was forced back by the heat and flames. As I was about to make my second attempt, a rubber fuel hose came free from under the vehicle and began to whip back and forth like an angry snake, spitting burning fuel from side to side like a flame thrower. Just as the fuel line broke free, several other drivers arrived offering help, one of them carrying a small fire extinguisher. The "flame thrower" kept us from approaching the sports car, while simultaneously spreading the fire toward the Oldsmobile, setting its engine compartment on fire. The driver's door of the Oldsmobile was jammed closed, and the driver was conscious, but pinned under the steering wheel and began yelling when the flames began to appear from under the hood.

The driver with the fire extinguisher pulled the pin on his extinguisher and was about to use it on the now completely engulfed sports car when I made a split-second evaluation of the situation, and stopped him. "Get the Olds, you can't put this out with that" was all I told him. In that split second I determined that the small fire extinguisher would not make a dent in the fire that engulfed the sports car, but it might be enough to fight the fire in the Oldsmobile's engine compartment until the fire department arrived. The small extinguisher didn't put out the fire in the Oldsmobile's compartment, but it did knock it down a bit and kept it from igniting that car's fuel line. Two truckers then arrived on the scene with fire extinguishers and put out the Oldsmobile's fire and kept the fire at bay until the fire department arrived. Once the police and fire departments arrived, we were ushered away from the area while they fought the fire and extracted the Oldsmobile's driver from the car. The sports car had burned so hotly that the aluminum wheels had melted from the suspension and had to be pulled from the asphalt, leaving silver-colored impressions to mark the spot.