2 injured in Mesa car fire

by Philip Haldiman - May. 22, 2010 10:12 PM
The Arizona Republic

Two people were flown to a Valley hospital with first- and second-degree burns after being trapped in a vehicle that caught fire late Saturday afternoon.

Dave Johnson, a Mesa Fire Department spokesman, said occupants of a late-model Pontiac were smoking cigarettes when the car began to fill with smoke. He said they thought the smoke was coming from a discarded cigarette at the back of the car.

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"The driver then handed a glass of water to the passenger in back, and he doused it, but to no avail," Johnson said.

Johnson said the driver, 26, pulled over to the side of McDowell Road short of Power Road and ran about 100 to 200 yards to buy at least three gallons of water at a nearby Osco Drug.

Johnson said the driver came back to find the car fully engulfed and his two passengers trapped. Apparently, the driver had pulled within inches of the curb, keeping the doors from being able to be opened.

The two passengers, a 26-year-old male and 25-year-old female, were flown to the burn center at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix.

Johnson said investigators believe the fire was started by a malfunctioning inverter in the trunk, not a cigarette butt. He said the driver used the inverter to power a printer that he had in his trunk, which was used in a side business to serve eviction notices.

"It looks like it took them a while to realize what was going on, but by the time they did, they were too late," Johnson said. "I think they tried to make it their own manageable problem but didn't know scope of the problem."

Johnson said nobody in the car called 911 and that someone driving by likely did. Mesa police had the driver take a breathalyzer test to determine if he was intoxicated, but they did not release results, Johnson said.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2010/05/22/20100522mesa-car-fire.html#ixzz0pnT9rfCG