DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — Tuesday’s massive tanker truck fire sent five people to the hospital — three still listed as critical — suffering from serious burns, and among the injured is a Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue firefighter and his girlfriend.
Bryan Aparicio and Sue Hninyi were in the back seat of an Uber, headed to their cruise vacation, when the unthinkable happened.
Aparicio, who is recovering from his burns at Delray Medical Center, is expected to be transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s burn unit where his girlfriend is recovering.
“It couldn’t get any worse,” said Jason Smith, the president of the Broward County Professional Firefighters and Paramedics Union. “I mean, they’re literally excited. They’re heading on to a fun vacation, time away, and then this happens, and then he has to go within an instant of a second. He doesn’t have the time at any moment to think.”
Smith said the Uber driver tried to avoid that initial wreck after a driver cut off the tanker truck, causing it to flip and burst into flames.
The Uber crashed into the median and hit a light pole, causing the pole to fall over onto the southbound side of Interstate 95.
As the fire erupted and the Uber came to a stop, Aparicio broke a back window trying to escape, but when his girlfriend didn’t follow him out, he went back in to save her life.
“By doing that, obviously, he put himself in a situation that cost him a longer time in that environment, which gave him significant second-degree to third-degree burns,” said Smith.
As the fire raged, fire rescue said, this was a dangerous fire to fight.
“There were incidents on both sides of the interstate, both on the north and southbound lanes,” said Delray Beach Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Greg Giaccone, “which is obviously going to divide our resources initially.”
“It looked like a war zone, it looked terrible,” said Brian Bernstein, a witness. “It looked like a plane had crashed or something that had come from the sky and just crashed onto the highway.”
Delray Beach Fire Rescue said the fire then traveled through a storm drain going underneath the highway.
Several crews from across the area responded.
“There were 35 fire rescue vehicles with 75 personnel that were on scene,” said Giaccone.
As for the injured couple, both suffered serious burns, Aparicio with the most severe burns to his face, arms and legs.
This hero suffered those wounds to save the life of his loved one.
“I keep on thinking about it like this,” said Smith, “he was willing to lose his life and stay right there, to make sure she got out, so it was almost like a Romeo and Juliet. He wasn’t leaving without her.”
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