Canadian Couple Crashes into Gas Pump Causing a Blaze
Sept 8 2009 Firefighters poked their heads out of No. 2 fire hall on Edmonds Street after being alerted by a knock at the door.
Less than a block away they saw a huge plume of smoke. They were just about on the road for the 10-second drive in their fire trucks when the first radio call came in.
A car had crashed into the Mohawk service station at Canada Way and Edmonds Street Monday afternoon, setting off a gasoline-fueled blaze that shut area streets for about two hours.
Miraculously, no one was injured.
At about 4:30 p.m. a white 1996 Honda Civic heading west on Canada Way went off the road and crashed into a gas pump at the station, severing it, said Burnaby RCMP Sgt. Jane Baptista.
The car continued on, hitting another gas pump before crashing into another car whose owner was in the midst of fueling up.
That man managed to jump out of the way just in time. The driver of the Civic and his female passenger, both in their 60s, were able to scramble out of the wreckage before it all burst into flames.
"It's absolutely amazing nothing worse happened," said Baptista. The Burnaby RCMP traffic division is investigating.
Witnesses didn't waste any time in alerting Burnaby firefighters.
"There were all sorts of people honking their horns as they passed by [the fire hall]," said Burnaby Fire Department's Lieut. Jamie Buis.
While he's not positive, he said it's possible that the service station's pumps have an automatic shut-off mechanism when they're severed like they were.
"But the person who was working there at the time also hit the emergency shut-off so that stopped any fuel from going out of the tanks."
The fuel already in the pump ignited and that's what set the two cars on fire, he explained.
As for damage, "I would say, considering what could've been, pretty minimal."
Seven fire trucks attended and it took about 15 minutes to extinguish the fire itself. It was about two hours before fire crews left the scene.
"The gentleman at the gas station was very fortunate," said Buis.
"He was very close to being hit, very close.
He was standing at the rear of the car gassing up and the [Civic] basically hit the middle to the front of his car while he was there.
"If he had been 10 feet up he would have been right between the two cars and the fire."
Holy shit! you have to be a TERRIBLE driver to pull that off
