Photo: kitsapsun.com
It was a very close call for a 70-year-old driver from Silverdale, Washington. He was in his 2000 white Chevrolet Camaro when he decided to smoke a cigarette – and everything else went to hell from there.
Jerry David Lewis tells the Kitsap Sun that he never lost consciousness during the entire rescue operation, which saw his clothes catch on fire and his car ultimately explode. Not for one second, which makes him all the more grateful towards the 2 motorists who pulled over and dragged him out from the burning car before emergency personnel even arrived at the scene.
Spencer Uber and Terrance Billy pulled over their cars when they noticed the flames licking the inside of the Camaro. By that time, Lewis was engulfed in flames and they reckoned it wouldn’t be long before the car exploded. They were right.
They rushed to get Lewis out, banging on his window and asking him to open the door. Lewis had started the fire himself, lighting a cigarette with a match and placing the match in the ashtray, where it ignited everything else inside. He tried to put out the fire, but his clothes caught the flame.
“As soon as he was able to get out, within a matter of minutes, the car was cracking and popping and the windows were blowing out,” Uber tells the publication. “He was actually still on fire. His coat was on fire and his hair was melted to him.”
The two men took Lewis out of the car and at a safe distance from it. Then, the Camaro exploded. Lewis recalls being airlifted to hospital (with “considerable burns” to his arms, face and neck, but he will make a full recovery) and looking down at what was once his nice car. He’d bought it for new and had just spent $6,000 on an engine upgrade.
“The car is toast. I'm just glad to be alive,” he says. “I don't smoke very often, but yesterday I decided to, which was a bad mistake. It seemed like the more I tried to put it out the worse it got.”
Spencer Uber and Terrance Billy pulled over their cars when they noticed the flames licking the inside of the Camaro. By that time, Lewis was engulfed in flames and they reckoned it wouldn’t be long before the car exploded. They were right.
They rushed to get Lewis out, banging on his window and asking him to open the door. Lewis had started the fire himself, lighting a cigarette with a match and placing the match in the ashtray, where it ignited everything else inside. He tried to put out the fire, but his clothes caught the flame.
“As soon as he was able to get out, within a matter of minutes, the car was cracking and popping and the windows were blowing out,” Uber tells the publication. “He was actually still on fire. His coat was on fire and his hair was melted to him.”
The two men took Lewis out of the car and at a safe distance from it. Then, the Camaro exploded. Lewis recalls being airlifted to hospital (with “considerable burns” to his arms, face and neck, but he will make a full recovery) and looking down at what was once his nice car. He’d bought it for new and had just spent $6,000 on an engine upgrade.
“The car is toast. I'm just glad to be alive,” he says. “I don't smoke very often, but yesterday I decided to, which was a bad mistake. It seemed like the more I tried to put it out the worse it got.”
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