McDonald’s employees and bystanders rushed to rescue two victims who were trapped when a tanker truck rolled over and caught on fire in Waukegan Sunday evening.
The Waukegan Fire Department and Waukegan Police Department responded around 6:30 p.m. Sunday to the area of Lakehurst Road and South Waukegan Road.
Waukegan Fire Department Battalion Chief Todd Zupec said emergency crews received calls for a vehicle crash involving a semi-tanker truck.
Fire crews arrived and found the semi-tanker truck rolled over onto its side on Lakehurst Road just west of Waukegan Road.
Multiple ambulances and multiple fire department units were dispatched to the scene.
Flor Astudillo, an employee at the McDonald’s in front of the scene, said she was taking a customer’s order when the power went out and she noticed a crash with a fire outside.
Astudillo said her instincts kicked in and she began yelling to her manager asking for a fire extinguisher.
She quickly used the extinguisher to control the “huge fire,” which was in the engine compartment area.
Multiple other bystanders also came to the rescue and tried breaking the windshield to free both occupants, who were still inside the cab of the truck.
Astudillo began reassuring one of the victims, who thought he was going to die. The man’s ankles were both twisted sideways, she said.
Astudillo, who had blood on her clothes and hands from one of the victims, also worked to control traffic and make sure the customers at the restaurant were safe.
The truck had struck a light pole and a tree in the collision. “I started getting emotional cause it was someone’s life and I was literally in a situation where it [the truck] could have exploded,” Astudillo said.
Both occupants were out of the truck and the fire was mostly extinguished by the time the fire department arrived.
The scene was quickly assessed by multiple fire units to determine the severity, Zupec said.
A small debris fire next to the truck was discovered by the fire department but quickly extinguished.
Zupec said the tanker truck also had a small diesel fuel leak that was sealed by firefighters.
The tanker itself was not carrying any material at the time of the crash, Zupec said.
Both occupants, who were adult males, were transported to the hospital by ambulance. Zupec said he did not know their conditions.
The truck nearly hit a car that a woman was driving, causing debris to strike her windshield and break it. “She was terrified… The tree is what stopped it,” Astudillo said.
Lakehurst Road was shut down for an extended period of time as towing recovery crews worked to upright the truck and remove it.
The cause of the crash is being investigated by the Waukegan Police Department, which has not yet released information on the incident.