Fulton Sun

A North Callaway Fire Protection District firefighter sustained second and third-degree burns while responding to a tractor fire off State Road YY near Williamsburg June 23.

Kirk Strube of Station 2 responded to a call that a tractor was burning that evening, but could not get the big truck close enough to the fire. When he returned with a smaller brush truck, the fire seemed to have burned itself out. As the firefighters prepared to leave, the tractor’s diesel tank ruptured, catching Strube in a fireball.

“Boom, it happened,” said Strube. “Most of the time diesel does not explode, but it came out in a giant fireball and got my left side, it’s definitely weird.”