VIDEO: New information is being shared about a routine brush fire call that quickly escalated into what the Louisa fire chief called the most chaotic scene he’s ever been part of.
Diane Hughes was terrified as she watched a forest fire grow Tuesday evening and inch closer to her home along Crestview Drive, just off U.S. 23 in Louisa.
“We were very scared,” Hughes said. “I didn’t want to see anybody hurt.”
“It was coming up the hill like a blow torch,” Louisa Fire Chief Eddie Preston said.
Preston said it all started with a neighbor burning at a time it’s not allowed.
“In a second it went from being a normal brush fire to an inferno,” the chief said.
Preston said while one of their crews was trying to get the fire contained, the wind picked up, and flames spread rapidly around them, putting them in serious danger, and the wind was blowing flames underneath their truck.
A mayday was issued.
“Myself and one of the firefighters got in the truck under extreme heat and smoke conditions and got it far enough away from the fire to a safe area,” Preston said.
