Mississippi woman escapes injury while
pumping gas

Paraphrased by:
Steve Waldrop
January 30, 2004

Madison, Miss.-- A Jackson County woman had just finished filling up her car with gas and placed the nozzle back on the pump when a blaze of fire erupted.

The unidentified woman, stopped to refuel her car at the Chevron station at Highway 51 and Hoy Road around 3 p.m.. The fire quickly grew out of control and swept through the gas station. No one was hurt in the fire.

The fire chief said the fire got so hot, the concrete cracked around the burning pump.

"It indicates to us that the fuel ran out here, it ignited and caused the very surface layer of the concrete to pop loose," said Madison Fire Chief Thomas Lariviere. "She could have been burned very seriously. (That happens) many times when you have a fuel pump fire. (People can) even sometimes be killed."

Fire officials said an emergency fuel shut-off stopped the flow of gas when the fire started.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but static electricity that builds around people in cold weather could have played a role, a spokesman for the Madison Fire Department said.