INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ Crowded into the back of a cargo truck with cans of paint, thinner and varnish, the 13 house-painters had no escape when the vehicle erupted into a moving fireball in rush-hour traffic.
Two men died, the rest were left with second- and third-degree burns over up to 90 percent of their bodies, and two weeks later, authorities are still trying to piece together what happened.
Motorists who witnessed the July 29 fire on an Indianapolis interstate told police the men opened the vehicle's back doors and appeared to be debating whether to jump.
None did, choosing to endure flames and superheated toxic gases until the driver pulled over after he and three other men in the truck's cab heard their trapped co-workers' cries and felt the vehicle rocking as they battled the flames.
Paramedic Chuck Ford arrived about 15 minutes later to find the 13 men, many horribly burned and screaming, along a highway median as the truck burned nearby. In 27 years as a paramedic, he had never seen so many badly burned people.
``They were standing with their arms straight out in extreme pain. Most of them had their clothing burned off, and many had most of their skin coming off,'' said Ford, director of emergency medical services for Wishard Memorial Hospital.
All the survivors face a grueling recovery, and many who could offer information remain hospitalized in drug-induced comas, which has hampered the investigation.
Tommy McElroy, who suffered severe burns to his legs, arms and hands, said some of his co-workers were smoking in the truck's cramped cargo area.
McElroy, 26, said paint thinner was spilled onto the floor just before the fire began, although he's not sure what started the fire.
``I just seen orange and red all around me. And I could feel it burning. Everybody was screaming, we were just trying to get out, you know? It was engulfed in flames,'' said McElroy, one of three survivors who have been released from the hospital.
Indiana State Police Sgt. Dave Bursten said the agency expects to take weeks to determine whether the fire was the result of criminal negligence or simply an unfortunate accident.
``We don't know if it was the lighting of a cigarette ... or something else,'' Bursten said. ``Right now we just don't have all the facts.''
Based on the agency's findings, he said prosecutors will have to decide if criminal charges are merited.
The company that owned the truck and employed the men, RPT Painting Inc., apparently violated no state laws in transporting them along with flammable paint supplies.
Relatives of two of the 11 surviving men have sued RPT Painting, accusing it of ``gross negligence.''
Thomas Doehrman, the attorney for the family of 20-year-old survivor J.R. Bryant, says transporting men along with flammables in a space the size of a small bedroom was ``an accident waiting to happen.''
An attorney for RPT Painting, Craig J. Helmreich, declined to answer specific questions about the fire and the events leading up to it.
Helmreich said there were 13 men in the back of the truck because it had picked up workers from another company truck that had broken down.
He said worker's compensation will pay the men's medical expenses, as well as $6,000 in funeral expenses for the two who died.
The family of John W. ``Jay'' Webster III, a 30-year-old who died hours after the fire, still wants to know what happened.
Webster had worked for RPT Painting for about two years and was paying off credit card debt as he and his fiancee, Lori Marsh, planned for their wedding and dreamed of buying a house.
Webster's mother, Gail Matheson, said she's relieved her son is no longer suffering.
``He was such an active person he would have been miserable if he had lived with those injuries,'' she said. ``Really, out of all of those guys who were burned so badly, he was the lucky one.''
A second man, Otis Turner, 46, died Aug. 12 after lingering for two weeks.
The fire has prompted an Indiana lawmaker to draft legislation requiring every person traveling in a motor vehicle to wear a seat belt. Current state law requires seat belts only in the front seats.
Dr. Rajiv Sood, director of Wishard Memorial Hospital's burn center, said three of the six men he is treating will likely remain in drug-induced comas for at least another week. Two other men are in critical condition at another hospital.
All have had surgery to remove dead skin, but face multiple skin grafts and other surgeries. Sood said the victims, most of whom are in their 20s, must still survive the threat of infection and other complications.
Yet their biggest hurdle may come when they emerge from their comas to the realization that painful, disfiguring scar tissue will cover much of their bodies for the rest of their lives.
``When they wake up there's a whole other set of realities for them to face,'' Sood said. ``It's not like being in a car accident where even though you have, say, a skull fracture, they fix it. You're done, you're OK. A burn's not the same.''
