Several off-duty firefighters rushed to rescue the driver from a burning tanker truck on a Florida interstate Thursday afternoon.
“We got all the way to the side, and I could see the black smoke. I hopped over the express lanes. I saw that the pole was knocked down, so that was blocking traffic. Three other truckers were yelling at me that there was a guy still inside. You could look under the smoke and see that he was still laying in the fuel,” Lauderhill Firefighter Lee Martin told WSVN.
“I took one of the trucker’s shirts. Along with another trucker, we went in, I tied [the driver’s] hands up, and the other guy tied his feet, and we dragged him out to get him away from the truck. He was actually still on fire when I pulled him out, and I was able to take my shirt and pat him down and get the fire out, so that was good. That’s the first thing you’re supposed to do.”
Rescue and hazmat crews were on the scene for hours.
“I’m glad that the timing worked out, because we were able to give that guy a fighting chance,” Martin added.
The driver was listed in critical condition.
