Flaming car ends up in Lake Zurich backyard
Quick action by a passing motorist and a neighbor may have saved the life of a man who crashed his car into the back yard of a Lake Zurich home Tuesday afternoon.
The driver of a late-model Chevy Camaro lost control while heading north on Midlothian Road just south of Old McHenry Road at about 1:15 p.m. The car slammed through a wooden fence, knocking out utility boxes and a tree and narrowly missing a child's playhouse before eventually bursting into flames.
"I heard what sounded like a really noisy truck and looked out the back window," said Elizabeth Hartke, of the 1100 block of Pearlman Lane. "I saw a red blur of the car driving into my backyard. It was a series of crashes as he hit the boxes and trees. It was horrible."
Hartke said the car eventually stopped, but smoke was pouring out of it. Fearing an explosion, she rushed her two small children to a neighbor's house across the street.
The neighbor, Mike Mahne, called 911 and then dashed to the scene.
"The driver was completely dazed," Mahne said. "He was stunned and wasn't getting out of the car. By this time there were flames visible."
Mahne, 57, and an unidentified motorist who stopped to help lifted the driver from the car and walked him over to sit under a nearby tree. Their timing was perfect.
"The car exploded right after we got him out," Mahne said. "It wasn't like the explosions you see in movies but it was loud and the flames fully engulfed the car.
Downplaying any heroics, Mahne said they reacted out of necessity.
"We had to get him out of there. There wasn't a choice," Mahne said. "The flames were getting worse and we just knew it was going to go up."
Lake Zurich firefighters arrived quickly, according to Hartke, and extinguished the blaze.
The unidentified driver was taken to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington. His injuries are unknown but didn't appear to be life threatening, according to Lake Zurich Fire Department Deputy Chief Dave Wheelock. Hartke said the driver was able to walk.
Lake Zurich police are investigating the crash and couldn't comment on the cause.
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