News

July 26, 2009

Driver, passengers escape minivan fire

Six escape injury on turnpike after Corvette operator and wife alert them vehicle was on fire.

SOUTH ABINGTON TWP. – A driver and passengers of a minivan that caught fire on the Pennsylvania Turnpike escaped just minutes before the vehicle burst into flames Saturday afternoon.

State police at Pocono said David Steele, 38, was driving north on the turnpike’s Northeast Extension and was about 2 miles south of the Clarks Summit interchange when the back end of his Plymouth Voyager caught fire at about 2 p.m. A couple in a Chevy Corvette traveling behind the minivan first noticed the flames.

Jim Gravin, driver of the convertible, drove up alongside the Voyager and blew his horn. Gravin and his wife, Ruth, both motioned Steele to pull over.

Once they stopped, police said the couple told Steele his vehicle was on fire. Steele, of Clarks Summit, and five of his passengers, including his 23-month-old toddler, Julia, were able to get out safely, police said.

The other passengers were Claribel Godoy, 37, of Clarks Summit, Barbara Rangel, 12, of Luzerne, and Joseph Gonzalez, 8, and his sister Angela, 7, both of Holland, Mass.

“They all moved up to a safe location and the vehicle became engulfed in flames,” said state police Trooper Darrin Capece of the Pocono barracks. “It could have been worse had they not gotten out at the time they did.”

Firefighters from the Chinchilla Hose Co. and Taylor Fire Department put out the blaze.

The cause of the blaze is still under investigation, police said. The vehicle was destroyed by fire. Nobody was injured.

Turnpike traffic heading northbound was stopped for about 40 minutes.

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