Two EMTs and their patient safely escaped the fire that engulfed their ambulance on a rural stretch of a North Dakota interstate over the weekend.
But, a crash in the backup left a driver with serious injuries and another charged with driving under the influence.
When the Day County ambulance crew realized there was a fire, they got thier patient out of the ambulance, according to Keoland.
The northbound lanes were shut down while the fire was extinguished.
I-29 northbound was closed while the fire was put out.
An ambulance from the Breckenridge-Wahpeton service came to transport the original patient.
While traffic on I-29 was stopped, a BMW 335 driven by Donald Lawuya, 28, failed to stop and rear-ended a Mazda CX-5.
The Mazda was pushed forward into a Ford F-150, which in turn was pushed forward into a Subaru Forester.
The driver of the Mazda was transported to Fargo with serious life-threatening injuries.
Lawuya was arrested for DUI, DUI-Refusal and Driving Under Suspension.
Highway Patrol Capt. Bryan Niewind told the media that crash following the fire created “a very chaotic environment,” noting that the incident required responses by Highway Patrol, fire services and EMS in a fairly rural area.
This, he said, created quite a drain on resources, the majority of whom are volunteers.
