BELFAST, Maine — Police said that a Swanville man escaped injury — and also managed to rescue his tree stand and his boots, after his pickup truck burst into flames Friday afternoon on Route 52 in Belfast.
“He got the important stuff out,” Sgt. John Gibbs of the Belfast Police Department said wryly.
Stan Sarnacki had been driving south just before 3 p.m. when he noticed that his 2005 GMC truck was losing power, Gibbs said. Sarnacki slowed to a stop close to the Northport town line, and an oncoming driver he knew shouted to him that there was a fire underneath the truck.
“He rolled backwards and put that fire out with his feet,” Gibbs said. “He wondered where it had come from, opened up the hood and the fire just went everywhere.”
Sarnacki later told police he suspected that something had gone wrong with his transmission, Gibbs said, adding that it was an unusual occurrence.
The Belfast Fire Department responded to the fire but were unable to save the truck.