Wheelchair-Bound Men Rescued From Calif. Van Fire

The sight of a stalled and heavily smoking passenger van in the Gateway Plaza on Monday morning did not deter several good Samaritans from coming to the rescue.

Within minutes of taxicab driver Bill Putnam getting the electric lift on a PACE Solano van operating, and several others joining the van's driver to get two wheelchair-bound men out, the vehicle became fully engulfed in flames.

"I was told there were two people in the van and I was worried it might blow," said Putnam, a driver for California Taxicab.

Roy Thomas, on his lunch break from construction work at the nearby new Toys 'R Us/Babies 'R Us store, said the van was not in flames when he helped force the vehicle's lift gates open after the power died mid-process, but "you could tell it was going to go." A dozen others in the van were able to exit without help.

Both Putnam and Thomas said there seemed to be no option other than to help the stranded men, in the absence of others stepping forward.

Once Vallejo firefighters arrived shortly after the rescue and had extinguished the blaze, only the chalky black fiberglass shell of the van remained.

"We definitely commend (the good Samaritans)," Fire Department spokesman Mark Libby said.

While none of the bus' 14 passengers, including staff and the driver, were injured, one firefighter received what appeared to be non-life threatening injuries from a deploying airbag, Libby said.

Preliminarily, the cause of the fire appears to be

linked with the van's battery, Fire Department Investigator Charles Rivers said. A final ruling on the cause, however, was not issued Monday.

The PACE Solano group was on an outing, said PACE Solano Director Kelley Hanson, when the bus stalled shortly before 10:30 a.m. in front of Michael's craft store on Plaza Drive.

"I think it was very fortunate that the end result (of the fire) was that everybody got off the bus, and got off the bus safely," Hanson said. "The Vallejo community was quite outstanding ... You hear the stories about people (elsewhere) ignoring what's going on."

PACE Solano provides training, education and employment services for adults with developmental disabilities, and transports some 400 people a day in Solano and Napa counties. Hanson said the program has rigid safety standards for its vehicles, and nothing like Monday's fire has occurred previously.

Copyright 2012 - Times-Herald, Vallejo, Calif.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service