Off-duty Airman extinguishes vehicle fire

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Ross Tweten
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  An Airman from the 5th Civil Engineer Squadron's fire protection flight recently extinguished a vehicle fire in the parking lot of a store in Minot.

Senior Airman Daniele Flick, the firefighter who extinguished the fire, was off-duty shopping with his wife when the incident occurred Aug. 8. 

"We saw smoke in the parking lot," said Airman Flick. "The owner of the vehicle was calling for help." 

The Flicks immediately went to the burning vehicle to help the owner. The back seat of the van was on fire. The vehicle was owned by a local Minot woman. 

While his wife remained with the vehicle's owner, Airman Flick ran inside the store to get a fire extinguisher and returned to the burning vehicle. 

"I extinguished the fire while my wife was talking to 9-1-1," he said. 

Minot emergency responders arrived shortly after the fire was already out. 

"Putting out fires comes natural to me because of the training the Air Force has given me but, honestly, anyone could have put out the fire," he said. "This situation just goes to show how important it is to have basic fire safety knowledge, because that's all it took. This knowledge is important because you just never know where or when you'll run into a fire. It's a relief that no one was injured during the fire."