Incident # 20-06942 - Fire-Rescue Units and Highway Patrol were sent to the area of the 60 mile marker northbound on Interstate 95 for a report of a motor vehicles accident in the median involving a tractor trailer truck Sunday morning 11-October at 03:02. While units were enroute, additional callers advised the truck and the woods were on fire. Additional Fire-Rescue units were assigned to the incident. First arriving units found a semi truck in the wooded median with heavy damage. The cab was fully involved and the surrounding woods were on fire. Diesel fuel covered the wooded median around the truck. A 30 yr old male was found on the northbound side of the incident, with multiple traumatic injuries and burns. He advised he was the passenger in the truck and that the driver was unaccounted for. Firefighter-Paramedics began treating the man, while other crew members deployed handlines to combat the fire. No medical helicopters could fly due to fog in the area. The man was transported in Fire-Rescue Medic 19, emergent to the Trauma/Burn Center at MUSC in Charleston with additional Firefighter-Paramedics onboard to assist with his care. The flames were burning against the front and under the container which ignited the load inside the container. Firefighter-Paramedics had the fire knocked down within 15 minutes. They located the body of the driver in the wreckage and notified the Coroner's Office. Coroner Richard Harvey responded to the scene. Crews used a K-12 circular saw to cut an access hole into the front of the container. It was packed from the floor to ceiling, front to back with boxes of freezer units. The units were burning inside the front of the container. Crews also cut access holes into the roof and doused the flames from there as well. The fire was completely extinguished about an hour later.
Engine 19, Engine 26, Tender 1, Tender 5, Tender 19, Tender 26, Medic 1, Medic 19, Medic 26, Battalion 1, Car 105 and Car 112 responded. Battalion Chief Brent Dalton served as Incident Commander.
