The San Francisco Chronicle reports that on Saturday, a man in a black BMW clipped another car at an intersection in North Oakland and crashed into a traffic signal pole. The driver wasn’t able to get out of the vehicle and then his car burst into flames.
Witnesses to the incident say that more than two dozen bystanders came “out of the woodwork,” some dragging hoses from their nearby houses, others carrying home fire extinguishers and some literally brought gallon bottles of water to douse the flames.
Firefighters arrived moments later and freed the man from the vehicle. They told reporters on the scene that the residents were responsible for the man surviving the fire. The man was taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for burn injuries and was reported to be in stable condition.