Paper carrier has a good tip: Flee that smoking car

Blethen Maine News Service ^ | 12/18/07 | Darla L. Pickett

[NewHampshireDuo]

Paper carrier has a good tip: Flee that smoking car A woman in Harmony is urged to get out of her car moments before it bursts into flames.

HARMONY — Doreen Bowley was feeling pretty lucky on Monday. Just minutes after she saw black smoke rolling out from under the hood and got out of her car Saturday, it caught fire and burned up.

"It burned all the way back to the trunk," Bowley said. "It blew out the windows."

Somerset County Sheriff's Deputy Niles Bowman said Bowley got out just in time.

"She was an older woman, blinded by the sun first thing in the morning on North Road," Bowman said. "It was about 8 a.m., the roads were slick and hadn't been sanded and she slid off the road. She spun her tires trying to get out and the paper carrier came along. She told her the car was smoking and she should get out. She got out and it burst into flames."

Bowley said she was grateful to Teresa McEwen, a newspaper carrier for Waterville's Morning Sentinel, who stopped to help.

"She delivers my paper. She gave me a ride up to the house and took my brother back down," Bowley said. "(The fire) started by the battery tipping over and putting acid on the hot motor."

McEwen, who has been a newspaper carrier for 17 years, said she was in the middle of her 217-paper route Saturday when she saw the accident on North Road.

"I knew the woman, so I pulled up beside the car and there was smoke coming from beneath the hood. Her car had gone off into the ditch. I told her, 'You've got to get out of the car, it is on fire,'" McEwen said.

"She shut her car off, but then couldn't open the door. I told her to turn the switch on so I could open the car door and help," McEwen said. "I took her up to her house and took her brother back."

Flames engulfed the red 1996 Buick Century, said a neighbor, Brian Cookson. "I came out of my house and saw a whole bunch of black smoke," he said. "I thought it might be my neighbor's mobile home burning. It's only 300 yards from my home. By the time I got there the car was burned totally, the steering wheel, the seats -- within five minutes. It went up real fast."

Fire Chief Onie Lougee said that by the time he and other firefighters got there, the front of the car was "totally gone." He said he did not know the cause.

Cookson said the Buick had gone off the road about 150 to 200 feet, "up over a culvert and got stuck. Teresa had just left our house. I'm the last person she delivers to on North Road. She helped the lady out of the car."