Man injured after crashing car into house, causing fire

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (WSVN) -- A driver was rushed to the hospital after his truck flew off the Turnpike, crashed into a home and several other cars before catching fire.

The wild ride ended outside a home Tuesday afternoon, but there was a lot of damage along the way before that vehicle came to a stop. "A car came off of the Turnpike, rolled through a chain link fence, came through and struck two vehicles at this residence and ended up catching on fire," said Hollywood Fire Rescue Chief Joel Medina.

"When I saw what happened," said Evan Hanna, "I ran to the truck. I tried to open the door, the door wouldn't open. I pulled him out the window and pulled him to the side, someone else came to help me pull him farther away from the truck before it exploded. I was panicking."

Rattled nerves are understandable when you see three smashed vehicles, a damaged building, and a raging fire. For neighbor Evan Hanna, when he saw the driver in the F-150, he knew he had to do something. "I didn't see nobody else trying to help," said Hanna, "so I figured I'd help."

"It could've been very tragic," said Hollywood Fire Rescue Chief Joel Medina, "even more tragic than the situation now had the individual not had assistance in leaving the vehicle. When our units got on the scene, they found the vehicle fully engulfed in fire, and that caught the house on fire."

Resident Delia Vieta was inside at the time. She now has an undriveable car and her home is damaged. "I heard a loud thump," said Vieta. "I was actually procrastinating to go to work a little bit later, and I was supposed to leave the house a little earlier, and I could imagine, I could've been sitting in that car trying to turn it on when all of this happened, so I guess me actually being a little more late to work that day could've avoided something for me."

Vieta's home is now boarded up, and the owners of the cars are trying to work on their next step. As for the driver of the Ford F-150, Florida Highway Patrol Officers said he is currently in surgery.

The driver has been identified as Tad Thomas of Port St. Lucie. Police are still trying to figure out what he will be charged with.

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