Baldwin County Pileup

Alabama Baldwin County Smoke fog and almost three dozen wrecked vehicles. In the middle of it all a volunteer fire chief and his crew. ACCIDENT SLIDESHOW

by Debbie Williams

Published: Mon, February 09, 2009 - 4:33 pm CST Last Updated: Mon, February 09, 2009 - 6:11 pm CST

Car accidents happen all the time on Interstate 10 but volunteer fire chief Chris Warren says he has never seen anything like what he faced Sunday morning. "I could hear people yelling for help just couldn't see them and like I say, all you could hear was crashing and crashing."
Just past the county road 68 overpass motorists found themselves surrounded by smoke and fog.
"You couldn't see somebody 2 feet in front of you." Rosinton firefighters quickly fell victim to the conditions. First, Warren crashes his command vehicle. Then one of the fire engines is hit not once but twice. "When he stopped an 18 wheeler came by, that's the one that came by me, made contact to the passenger side right there and another pickup truck came in the rear and hit and one of my firefighters was injured in that truck," says Warren.
Those not injured were herded from their vehicles up embankments along side the interstate to safety.
"I can't describe what it is when you hear people yelling for help but you can't even see them and can't risk anymore lives to go down in there to try to get them when you have cars hitting one after the other every second," says Warren.
In all interstate 10 was shut down for six hours, almost thirty cars crashed on both sides of the interstate. Thirteen people were taken to the hospital but nobody died."
"It was just a pure mess down there," says Warren.
The smoke came from permitted controlled burns by nearby landowners. State Troopers report five separate accidents involving 27 vehicles.

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