Roadside inferno 火海救援_美文_双语阅读-查字典英语网

Roadside inferno 火海救援

Looks like abrush fire（灌木丛火灾）,Kim Cooper thought as she spotted an orange glow ahead on Interstate 75. It was neardusk（黄昏）, and she and her husband, Steve, were trucking through northern Kentuckyhauling（搬运，牵引）auto parts from Louisville to Detroit for afreight（货运）company. Steve, 59, was fast asleep in the truck's living quarters as Kim, 52, drove up to the scene. That's when she saw it was much worse than a brush fire.

"Steve, wake up!" she shouted. "There's a truck on fire!" A big rig hadtumbled down（破败）anembankment（路堤）, and flames were crawling across its cab. Kimyanked（猛拉）their truck to the side of the road, and Stevepulled on（戴，穿）his clothes. Then he scrambled down the slope.

Inside the burning truck, Ronnie Sanders, 38, was fighting for his life. He'd been running a heavy load of tractors andforklifts（铲车）from Georgia to Indianapolis when a Grand Caravan in front of him stopped suddenly in traffic on the icy road. As Ronnie bore down, he could see children in the backseat. The truck'sbulk（体积，容量）would probably protect him from the worst of the impact, but the momentum of 23 tons would likely crush everyone inside the van.

"In Kentucky, the hills are steep, but at that moment, I didn't think about it," he says of that evening last November. "I figured instead of killing other people, I'd just put the truck in theditch（沟渠，壕沟）." Hejerked（猛拉，痉挛）the wheel to the right, somehow keeping the truck upright as it plowed 60 feet down the embankment. At the bottom, rocks pierced a fuel tank, whichignited（点燃，燃烧）. A tree branch smashed through thewindshield（挡风玻璃）and knocked Ronnie unconscious. He came to a couple of minutes later to find the cab in flames and his legs on fire.