Camera staff

A 26-year-old Lafayette man was in critical condition at a Denver hospital Friday evening after he apparently lost control of a company utility truck on U.S. 36 at the north edge of Boulder, rupturing a gas tank and quickly engulfing the cab in flames.

Three passersby rushed to the burning truck to pull the unconscious driver out.

Authorities have not released the driver's name, saying they have not located his family.

He is being treated at the University of Colorado Hospital's burn unit. He suffered burns over 75 percent of his body, according to a hospital official.

Scraps of the driver's clothing — a charred and torn shirt with his company's logo, The Green Plan, a landscape maintenance company on North Foothills Highway — and his boots remained on the highway after he was taken to the hospital.

"He was on fire," said Boulder resident Michael Wegener, who was driving with his wife and her family to Rocky Mountain National Park when he saw the accident late Friday morning. "He couldn't get himself out. It was very traumatic."

Witnesses said the driver seemed to lose control before crashing into an embankment off the highway.

Both Wegener and his wife's uncle, Ken Kranz of New York, saw the truck burst into flames and ran to help. Wegener said he tried to pull the man out of the car but wasn't able to get him completely out. Kranz helped and, with the help of another man, they rolled the victim on the ground to smother the flames.

Michael's wife, Melissa, brought a blanket and helped them get the man to the road as paramedics arrived. Seconds later, the truck exploded.

Both Kranz and Wegener, who were treated at Boulder Community Hospital for minor burns, downplayed their injuries. The flames were so hot, they slightly melted the bottom of Wegener's shoes.

Melissa Wegener's mother, Joan Zapin, who witnessed the accident, called the two men heroes. "I'm so proud of them," she said. "They never hesitated."

Jeff Gaines, a Boulder resident who arrived on the scene before the explosion, echoed her comment.

"I saw heroism," he said.

The driver "would have been dead very quickly if they hadn't of done what they did," he added.

Contact Pam Regensberg at (303) 473-1329 regensbergp@thedailycamera.com.

June 1, 2002

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