JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- A paraplegic man and his brother barely escaped a fire at their home after a motorist skidded across two neighbors' front lawns and hit the side of their house, starting a natural gas fire that blazed for 90 minutes.
Steve Phillips, a 55-year-old paraplegic, said he was in bed watching TV on Tuesday when he heard the vehicle crash into his home off Mississippi 18 south of Jackson.
Phillips said he immediately called out for his brother. James Phillips, 53, came into his brother's room.
``My brother said, 'We've got to get out of here, the place is on fire,''' Steve Phillips said, sitting in a neighbor's garage shortly after the fire. ``I didn't know what to do. He told me to get in the wheelchair. We tried to get out the front or back door. He broke a window in my room to get out. If my brother wasn't there, I would have burned up.''
Officials said the fire occurred when a motorist lost control and slammed into the home, leaving a hole from crumbling brick.
James Phillips was treated on the scene with blisters and second-degree burns on his right arm. Steve Phillips was unharmed, paramedics said.
The driver escaped with minor injuries, said Capt. Jack Hite of the Raymond Volunteer Fire Department, and was transported to Central Mississippi Medical Center.
The woman, whose name was not released, was driving alone, Hite said.
