Firefighters respond to pickup truck fire
By John Joyce
Published in News on February 25, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/ETHAN SMITH
Firefighters tamed the blaze that engulfed District Attorney Matt Delbridge's Dodge Ram 1500 V8 last night. Responders said the truck was a total loss after running a firehose hundreds of feet to reach the fire.
Goldsboro Fire Department Engine 5 arrived on scene to the Forest Hills Drive family residence of District Attorney Matthew Delbridge to find his pickup truck fully engulfed in flames Tuesday night.
Three other fire companies responded to the fire to protect the residence, fire officials said.
"It was a possible mechanical malfunction," Assistant Fire Chief Eric Lancaster said.
The call came in at 6:55 p.m.
Ice was forming over most of the city and county roads and the remaining snowpack was freezing over everything not paved.
"Roadways were a mess," Lancaster wrote in the report.
He said he arrived on scene a few minutes after the crew from Engine 5 and saw just what his guys were dealing with in the cold, snow and ice.
"We had to jack a line through the trees and yard because there was no way we could get the trucks down in here," he said.
The residence lies well off the road -- about 500 feet -- and is secluded from view by clusters of trees and a snaking driveway.
Firefighters dragged heavy hose lines through the snow and trees around the back of the house until they came face to face with Delbridge's Dodge Ram 1500 V8, fire pouring from the engine and wrapping around the cab of the vehicle from underneath.
According to the fire report, the truck had been sitting in the driveway for two weeks and Delbridge decided to move it. He started smelling fumes while sitting in the cab of the truck and opened the door to air it out.
That is when the fire started.
Delbridge said he heard a pop and saw flames under the hood so he grabbed a fire extinguisher but was unsuccessful in dousing the flames, according to the report.
The investigation later determined there was a leak in the fuel line which cause the fire.
Delbridge later declined to comment other than to say he was uninjured and neither were his parents who were not at home, and that the fire never reached the residence.
Lancaster said the truck, a 2001 model valued at $3,000, was likely a total loss.