A four-door Chevy Silverado pickup truck was left as a charred shell of its former self Wednesday afternoon after the vehicle suddenly caught fire at the corner of Columbia Rd. 15 and Columbia Rd. 471 in the Bussey-Sharman Community. The area is roughly 5 miles north of Taylor and 15 miles south of Magnolia, just near Hwy. 371.
The fire was first reported to Bussey-Sharman VFD 4:20 p.m. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office and Walker Creek Volunteer Fire Department also responded to the scene.
An eyewitness report claimed that, while traveling down Columbia Rd. 15 Wednesday, the truck's front began smoking -- speculated perhaps by a battery explosion or issue, or another electrical malfunction -- then the driver pulled over onto the small logging road. The two young men inside the truck, the driver and passenger, then quickly abandoned the vehicle and distanced themselves from the truck when it mass flames spontaneously blanketed the front.
“We were walking away and then it was just engulfed,” said the passenger.
By 4:45 p.m., the flames were extinguished, but not before the blaze virtually disintegrated the hood, front grille, tires, and the cab’s interior furnishings. The paint job on the truck’s roof was also blasted away by the fire, mass scorches were seen that reached as far back as the truck’s bed. For much of the vehicle, only a sizzled metal skeleton remained. In the engine bay, nothing was left expect the still-smoldering solid steel block.
By 5 p.m., only small amounts of smoke still spewed from the truck. Gallons upon gallons of special foam retardant was used by the Walker Creek VFD to extinguish the fire. The front half of the truck was virtually coated with the foam when all was settled.
The exact cause of the sudden fire was still a bit of a head-scratcher on Wednesday, but no one was hurt in the incident.