07/07/2025
Good afternoon, on July 5th 3 firefighters from the Guntown Volunteer Fire Department were voluntarily on duty at Pine Ridge Speedway. Around 12:00 a.m during the Factory Stock feature race there was an accident that resulted in a car flipping multiple times. 5 seconds after the car came to rest it exploded in flames. The driver was able to self extricate as it exploded, with minor injuries. As soon as the car began to flip 2 Firefighters made their way onto the track as medical personnel on a SXS, as they always do because of the nature of the accident. When the car exploded the third firefighter was unable to get the Fire Apparatus onto the race track because it was blocked in by race cars in staging. The firefighters used the small pump on the SXS with Foam trying to extinguish the fuel fire as the fuel was burning towards them. When the Fire Apparatus arrived onto the track, water was immediately used to try to calm the blaze as they worked to hook up the foam inducer to blanket the blaze. Fire fighters, track personnel, and other drivers were quick to help, but as everyone knows it is extremely difficult to extinguish 15-20 gallons of fuel burning. After the fire was extinguished, Fire Department officials and track officials investigated and found that the car was not equipped with the proper fuel cell and it busted upon contact. Through out the night and day firefighters have been bashed because people feel as if there was no sense of urgency. We had one firefighter burned because he did not take the time to put on personal protective equipment. I can promise you they were working urgently. We have also heard comments that firefighters said they were gonna let the car burn. No one at the racetrack on Saturday night said that. There were no intentions on letting it burn. First thing in a firefighters mind is safety of everyone around the fire. In this case scenario fire containment has to come before extinguishment for safety of personnel and by standers. After this event we see there were flaws and we are working along with track officials to correct them and improve. We would like to apologize to everyone who see’s our flaws. We are trained, volunteer firefighters and if you think you could do better we invite you to join us!
Thanks,
Chief Larry McCoy
