Dramatic fire scene, but no injuries during Plover car blaze

By Brandi Makuski

It took Plover firefighters almost two full hours to extinguish a burning SUV in the Walmart parking lot on May 5, due in part to fuel leaking from the vehicle’s full tank of gas.

The female motorist parked her Ford SUV about 10 feet from the entrance of the store’s tire and lube center at about 12:40 p.m. on Saturday. At 12:49 p.m., the car began to smoke; within moments it burst into flames.

The woman and her children were not in the vehicle when the fire began, police said.

Plover Police Officer Jacob Paltz, who was first on the scene, said the vehicle was emitting smoke when he arrived.

“And then I saw a chip of fire fall from underneath the car, and I thought, ‘Uh-oh, this is something more,'” he said.

Within moments, he said, the vehicle’s gas tank exploded.

“I can’t really explain what it looked like, I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “It was kind of like fire just shooting straight up in the air, and then it looked like fireworks going off.”

Paltz said the driver reported filling her gas tank shortly before arriving at the store—something Plover Fire Lt. Ken Collins said helped the fire flare back up several times, even after firefighters thought they’d beaten it down with both fire suppressant and water.

Adams Towing was called to the scene to remove the vehicle. During a first attempt to pull the SUV on to the Adams’ flatbed, the fire flared again and briefly spread, coming close to the tow truck.

“We just couldn’t cool it down enough to get to the gas and where the gas leak was,” Collins said.

Using the tow truck’s flatbed as a lift, crews were able to soak the SUV’s undercarriage with suppressant, then used several bags of oil dry from Walmart to soak up any remaining fuel on the ground. Crews finally cleared the scene shortly after 3 p.m.

See photos from the call here.