Witness Describes Mobile Meth Lab Blast in Pennsylvania

Nov. 09--Ed Gashi just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

The Good Samaritan, who helped two people out of a fiery wreck when what police say was a mobile methamphetamine lab blew up Thursday morning, was on his way back to his house in Harding.

Normally Gashi, who works at Pikes Creek Asphalt, wouldn't be driving home from work so early, shortly before 10:30 a.m. But employees were sent home for the day because of rain.

As he drove along Carverton Road in Kingston Township, Gashi saw the black Chevrolet Equinox directly in front of him "just burst into flames."

"It was pretty shocking. Not something that you see every day," he said.

Gashi stopped so abruptly everything flew off the dashboard of his truck, but he didn't notice it at the time. A woman, later identified as Jennifer Lynn Arnold, was getting out of the driver's side of the flaming sport utility vehicle, her hair and clothing on fire. Gashi hurried over and helped her extinguish the flames.

Then, he noticed the SUV contained a passenger who was also on fire. Gashi pulled the man, 33-year-old Lee M. Marshall, out of the smoke-filled vehicle and rolled him on the ground to put the fire out.

"He was burned pretty severely," Gashi said.

It took Gashi a bit to dial 911 "because I was trying to help the two people," but Kingston Township police arrived quickly.

Marshall, Arnold and Gashi were taken to area hospitals for treatment.

Gashi was treated for minor burns on his hands and smoke inhalation, and released. He said he was "not feeling the best," but doctors said he would be all right in a few days.

Police determined Marshall had been mixing Drano and lighter fluid to cook meth when the container blew up. State and local law enforcement authorities obtained a warrant to search the SUV.

As of Friday night, no charges had been filed.

"It's unfortunate. It was probably something that could have been avoided, but it could have been a lot worse," Gashi said of the fire.

Asked why he stopped to help in such a potentially dangerous situation, he said, "It's just something I thought was the right thing to do."

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