Rollover results in car fire
<p>Superior Volunteer Firefighters work to douse an engulfred car with a mixture of foam and water Sunday.</p>
SUPERIOR - On Sunday afternoon a vehicle with one 18-year-old occupant was driving eastbound on interstate 90 near mile marker 43 when his car rolled over.
The vehicle landed right side up and the occupant was dazed and bleeding sitting in the car. It was at this time that other motorists rushed to the car and informed the driver that the car was on fire.
An ambulance quickly arrived on scene and a paramedic attended to the occupant while another worked to stamp out a fire that caught on the brush surrounding the vehicle.
As the paramedic had the fire stomped out, the Superior Volunteer Fire Department arrived on scene and began their normal procedure for highway accidents.
“We were just called because the car was on fire,” Superior Volunteer Fire Chief John Woodland said. “The initial call was a rollover accident with a car fully engulfed and we could all see the smoke as we were coming to it.”
Upon arrival, the SVFD set up a safety zone on the eastbound side of the interstate. According to Chief Woodland the zone is used to protect emergency personnel and involves utilizing a flagger as well as staggered cones to keep traffic away from the site.
The final piece of protection is strategically placing the fire truck in a way that if a motorist veers off the road they will hit the fire truck rather than any emergency personnel. While the emergency zone was being established, other volunteers began attacking the car blaze using a mixture of water and .3 percent Class A foam.
“What that foam does is make our water penetrate and stay a lot longer,” Chief Woodland said. “It gets on the grass and soaks deep into the grass. With a car fire, if there is any upholstery going or something like that it will soak into that.”
Chief Woodland added that it was “only a couple of minutes” before they got the fire out.
The Montana Highway Patrol is currently conducting an investigation as to the cause of the crash.
The occupant was transported to Mineral Community Hospital with only minor injuries.