A group of Good Samaritans rescued a woman trapped inside a burning pickup truck on Sunday afternoon.
According to initial police reports, a white pickup truck traveling eastbound on Chief Lake Road went off the road to the right near Fox Drive. The truck smashed into a tree and flipped - ending up on the passenger side facing west.
A fire then broke out in the engine compartment.
Area resident Jeff Jickels and his family were outside doing yard work when the collision happened.
"It was smash - I saw the top of the tree fall, and I ran over there because I saw the truck," Jickels said. "A man who was a nurse was one of the first to stop. We wanted to leave her in there until the ambulance arrived, but then the back of the cab caught fire, so we had to pull her out."
Jickels said the woman was injured, but conscious and talking.
"There was a mark on her chest and blood on the right temple and forehead," he said. "She kept saying there was five people in the truck. [But] she was the only one in there."
Jickels' family and other motorists stopped to assist -calling 911, stopping traffic, searching for other passengers and a fire extinguisher.
"I was yelling for a fire extinguisher, but we didn't have one. Then somebody brought one and started using it, but it wouldn't put the fire out," he said.
Police, ambulance and fire crews arrived quickly and rushed the woman to hospital. Fire crews were quickly able to extinguish the burning truck.
Jickels said when he was pulling the woman out of the truck, he noticed a strong smell of alcohol and saw broken liquor containers in the cab.
Police are investigating the crash, and had not said alcohol was a factor as of press time. Information about the driver's condition was not available as of press time.
