NORTH FORK — A woman who had just purchased a 2001 Saturn didn’t get to enjoy it long before it caught fire and burned to the ground.
At 6:30 p.m., firefighters and CHP were dispatched to reports of a car on fire on Bonnie B Road (Road 224) just north of Wilcox Drive.
When crews arrived at scene they found the four-door sedan fully engulfed in flames and no one around.
Neighbors had seen the flames and called it in, and passersby also stopped, but with tires exploding and the obvious danger of approaching the vehicle, witnesses could only wait for firefighters to arrive.
A Cal Fire engine out of Rancheria Station was there within minutes and quickly had the flames extinguished, checking the surrounding area to make sure there were no injured occupants nearby.
The driver said she had just bought the car and was driving it home when it stalled and then caught fire. She was able to get out of the vehicle, and another North Fork resident who was passing by at that moment stopped and took the driver to her home to call 911.
The driver returned to the scene shortly after first responders arrived, to find her car completely destroyed. She was shaken up but uninjured.
The roadway was blocked for about 30 minutes as firefighters did their work.
The cause of the fire is not known.
