A woman returning home from the hospital after giving birth four days prior and another truck driver are heroes after they ran into a highway inferno caused by an overturned tanker carrying jet fuel and extinguished a fire that engulfed the driver.
The incident took place on the ramp connecting Interstate 465 southbound with I-70 eastbound in Indiana just before 2pm on Thursday.
A tanker hauling about 4,000 pounds of jet fuel overturned and exploded, igniting a massive fire that forced the closure of lanes and backed up traffic on both highways.
When the semi overturned, the tank split open, causing massive damage, authorities said.
‘We see a plume of smoke, huge smoke,’ Holly McNally, 35, told WTHR-TV.
Holly McNally (left), 35, and Mitch Navarre (right), 50, helped save the life of a driver on an east Indianapolis highway on Thursday
A tanker carrying some 4,000 pounds of jet fuel overturned and exploded on Thursday
Cell phone video captured by drivers nearby shows large plumes of smoke and fireballs emanating from the tanker
The incident took place on the ramp connecting Interstate 465 southbound with I-70 eastbound just before 2pm on Thursday
The overturned tanker and the explosions caused major traffic jams on two highways
The image above shows the tanker catching fire on the ramp connecting the two highways in Indianapolis on Thursday
‘Like it looked like a warehouse on fire.’
McNally was driving the car with her mother in the passenger seat on their way back home after she gave birth to her fourth child on Monday.
‘I saw the actual semi on fire and then looked to the front of the semi and then I see a man on fire, like his head was burning,’ she said.
The man, 59-year-old Jeffrey Denman of Brownsburg, Indiana, suffered significant burns and was rushed to Eskenazi Hospital.
He is listed in critical condition.
‘I told my mom, “I’m stopping and I’m going over there,” and she’s like, “No you’re not.”
‘I was like, “I am”.’
McNally said: ‘I stopped and jumped the guardrail, ran down the big old ramp and back up the ramp to him’.
When McNally reached the semi, another Good Samaritan, 50-year-old Mitch Navarre, was there, as well.
McNally and Navarre used a coat to put out the fire that was burning Denman.
‘Only thing on this man’s body were his boots, clothes were dripping off,’ McNally said.
‘There was nothing on him. Nothing.’
Denman told McNally that his name was Jeff and that he was hauling jet fuel. He told McNally that the jet fuel was now on fire. The flames were now coming closer toward them.
‘I was like, “Oh my Gosh! We have to go now”,’ McNally told Denman and Navarre.
The remains of the jet fuel tanker are seen above after firefighters put out the flames on Thursday
Firefighters are seen above putting out what remains of the flames near the tanker
The driver, Jeffrey Denman, 59, of Brownsburg, Indiana, was taken to a hospital. He is listed in critical condition
The above image shows the destroyed tanker on the highway ramp in east Indianapolis on Thursday
Authorities said that after the tanker overturned, it then split open, allowing the jet fuel to leak
The overturned tanker and the subsequent fire caused damage to the roadway
Firefighters douse the final remnants of the flames at the site of the overturned tanker on Thursday
‘I was on Jeff’s left side, the other guy was on his right and we’re trying to carry him down,’ McNally said.
She said that the fire kept growing from the embankment down below.
‘It was getting closer and closer’.
A few moments later, the tanker exploded in the exact spot where they were standing just a few minutes beforehand.
‘If we would not have moved and gotten out of that area, we all would have been gone,’ Holly said.
‘Smoke was hitting us,’ she said.
‘There was a part of my brain, everybody’s brain, where you think, “When do I cut?”
‘You know what I mean? “When do I quit helping?” but that never hit me.
‘I couldn’t quit.’
Navarre was driving his own semi-truck west on I-70 when the tanker in front of him flipped on the ramp to I-465 southbound.
He ran across several lanes of interstate traffic and approached the tanker truck driver, whose clothes were on fire.
‘As I was coming with my truck I saw the man, Navarre told WRTV-TV.
‘He was burning and everyone was on their cell phone.
‘The first thing that came to mind, I just parked the truck and jumped the highway and went onto the hill and tried to literally get the man out of that fire.
‘I wasn’t just trying to be famous or to be on TV.
‘In fact when that happened, I just walked away.
‘This man was burning. This man was actually fried.’
Navarre removed his coat and put it around the injured trucker.
He said that the smoke around them became thicker and darker. Navarre noticed that the jet fuel began to explode.
‘As I saw him getting ready to die, he knew he was gonna die,’ he said.
‘I said I’m going to get you out.
‘I don’t know how, the whole flame was inside, we were inside the flame.
‘Nobody saw us.’
McNally had just given birth to her fourth child, son Connor, whom she was visiting at the neonatal intensive care unit
She was driving back home on Thursday after visiting Connor at the NICU when the tanker accident took place
McNally helped Navarre carry Denman to the bottom of the ramp, where they were met by a civilian and a state trooper.
Navarre, a former dean of a local school, works as a truck driver while also pursuing his PhD in leadership.
He said: ‘I heard some people say, “You’re gonna die together.”
‘As they said that, I said to that guy, “I’m going to get you out.”
‘As I was coming out, everybody was saying I was a hero.
‘I said, no, I was a human first.’
McNally, a stay-at-home mom, says it was the most intense experience of her life.
‘Besides delivering a baby. That was crazy, yes,’ she said with a laugh.
McNally gave birth to Connor on Monday. After going into labor, she managed to deliver her son on her own in the emergency room.
‘The doctor didn’t make it in time and the ER doctor didn’t make it in time,’ she said.
When asked if she was always this much of a ‘bada**,’ she replied: ‘I try to be.
The company that employs Denman, Jet Star Inc, posted a statement on Facebook on Friday. ‘We would like to thank everyone for the amazing outpouring of support, prayers and concern for our driver Jeffrey “Duke” Denman following yesterday’s tragedy involving one of our trucks on the east side of Indianapolis,’ read the statement
‘I try to be so my kids think I’m cool and strong.’
McNally says that she was thinking of her newborn when she ran into the inferno.
‘I was like, “What if that’s my son? What if that were Connor when he’s 30?”’
McNally expects to bring Connor home on Monday from the neonatal intensive care unit.
The company that employs Denman, Jet Star Inc, posted a statement on Facebook on Friday.
‘We would like to thank everyone for the amazing outpouring of support, prayers and concern for our driver Jeffrey “Duke” Denman following yesterday’s tragedy involving one of our trucks on the east side of Indianapolis,’ read the statement.
‘We are grateful that no one else was injured or involved.
‘We would also like to offer a heartfelt “thank you” to the brave “Good Samaritan’s” that rushed to aid our driver and help him escape from further harm.
‘We would also like to thank all of the first responders and various public safety agencies involved, firefighters, EMS, EMA, law enforcement and INDOT.
‘Thank you for your continued support and thoughts and prayers for our driver.’