Blaze turns RV into fireball
by Teresa Eubanks, CLJNews.com
CLARKVILLE – A Tallahassee couple escaped harm but the used RV they had just purchased and spent two weeks fixing up was reduced to a metal shell after it caught fire while traveling through Calhoun County Friday afternoon.
Diane Evans and her husband, Jr. Lolley, of Bristol, were traveling behind the RV around 2:30 p.m. on SR 20, just west of Clarksville, when the fire started.
“It just started with a little fire here and a little fire there..then all of a sudden, the whole thing was a fireball,” she said.
Evans had been paying close attention to the RV before deciding not to go around the slower moving vehicle because of its width.
“All of a sudden, I saw fire dripping out of the engine on onto the road,” she said. The RV driver pulled off the road. His wife, who was traveling ahead in their car, stopped as well.
Other vehicles passing by saw the fire coming from the engine and stopped to help. “People jumped out of their cars with fire extinguishers to try to help but the fire just got bigger,” Evans said. Within moments, the RV was engulfed in flames.
Evans called 911 and handed the phone over to her husband – who served as a dispatcher in Liberty County for many years – and he related information to the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office as the fire escalated.
The driver’s wife ran toward the vehicle, not aware that her husband was safely outside. Evans stopped her, held her and pointed through the smoke to show where her husband was standing while telling her help was on the way.
Others driving by stopped to help. Evans noted that one woman pulled over and grabbed a firefighting uniform from her trunk while asking if anyone was inside the vehicle. Luckily, there was not. Evans – who is not from this area – was heartened to see that the woman was ready to go in to help save anyone who might have been trapped in the burning vehicle.
The driver’s wife warned that there was a propane tank in the camper and moments later, it blew up. “We were nearly 100 feet away and could feel the heat from it,” Evans said. “A couple of minutes later, the gas tank blew.”
Then more explosions when the heat hit some canned goods. “One can went straight up in the air, exploded and became embedded in the road,” Evans said.
The couple had just left their daughter’s home in Fountain, where they had been getting the RV ready to take home.
Firefighters, Calhoun EMS, FHP, the Forestry Service and the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.
About Author
