Courtesy photo
Nevada Highway Patrol vehicle destroyed by fire on Caliente Summit, Aug. 19. The trooper suffered only minor burns trying to extinguish the flames.
A fire of unknown origin destroyed a Nevada Highway Patrol car Aug. 19, on U.S. 93, at Caliente Summit.
Sergeant Guy Davis said the incident happened about 3:30 p.m. “The lone trooper, driving a 2014 Ford F150, began to notice smoke in the rearview mirror, pulled over to the highway shoulder, and when he got out, there was already fire coming from underneath the carriage near the driver’s side door. He tried to put the fire out with the onboard fire extinguisher, but was unable to, and the vehicle became fully engulfed.”
Davis said other motorists were also stopping offering to help, “even offering to dump ice coolers on it, but it was too far gone.”
There was no explosion of the gas tank. Davis said the trooper “lost all of his equipment and belongings in the vehicle, including computers, printers, radio, scanner, rifles, shotgun, and live ammunition.”
Davis said, “He then did a good job in keeping passersby who had gathered far enough away from the car and the exploding ammunition inside. No injuries occurred.”
The Caliente Volunteer Fire Department responded, however, there was nothing they could do.
Davis said the trooper suffered some minor burns to his face, right arm, and right leg. He was later treated at Grover C. Dils Hospital.
He said the State Fire Marshal’s Office will soon be conducting an investigation into the cause of the fire.
