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Orlando Sentinel Saturday June 10 2006
Crisis averted in Orlando airport fire
Planes with British holiday makers on board nearby, a fuel-truck driver quickly douses a fire in Sanford Airport, Orlando, Florida.
By GARY TAYLOR and ROBERT PEREZ
SENTINEL STAFF WRITERS
SANFORD — A fuel-truck driver at Orlando Sanford International Airport was being hailed as a hero Friday for extinguishing a fire that broke out in the engine of his truck, loaded with 10,000 gallons of aviation fuel.
Chris Pugliese, who has only worked at the airport for about four months, could easily have panicked and the result could have been disastrous, airport officials said. "He averted a horrible catastrophe," said Diane Crews, Vice President of airport operations. "Christopher is absolutely a hero to the airport and to all those passengers adjacent to the area."
Pugliese, 26, had just pulled his truck under the wing of a Boeing 767 operated by Flyglobespan when the truck's engine stalled. Pugliese, who had already put 10,000 gallons of fuel in the plane's tanks on an earlier trip, walked toward the back of the truck, where the engine is located, and saw flames leaping about a foot into the air. "The whole engine was on fire," he said. "I was scared." But he didn't panic, Pugliese said. "They train us how to put out fires. If I started running it would have been a mess."
Pugliese didn't know that two nearby jetliners — one owned by First Choice and the other by My Travel — were loaded with passengers and ready to depart for the United Kingdom. Crews estimated the two planes held 500 to 600 passengers. But he knew many people who work for his company, Swissport, were in the area. Swissport provides ground services, including fueling and baggage handling, at the airport. Most of them didn't notice the fire until Pugliese hit it with a seven to ten second burst from a fire extinguisher he grabbed from the side of the truck. The cloud of chemicals from the extinguisher made the fire appear worse, even though it was out "A bunch of people came running," he said.
Airport President Larry Dale said Pugliese "put himself in harm's way" to protect others. "This guy didn't hesitate. I call him a hero."
Dale said the fire could easily have spread to the tires on the tanker and then to the fuel it was carrying. Fire crews worried the fire might restart, so the planes were quickly removed from the gates and the two loaded planes took off. Dale said he isn't sure how much of the incident the passengers could see. "I'm sure they knew something was going on," he said. "They could see emergency trucks right outside their windows."
Pugliese finished his shift after the incident and planned to be back at work today. He was a truck driver in New York City before moving to Sanford about six months ago.
Pugliese said he is overwhelmed by the attention he has received. "It really was no big deal," he said. "It would have been a big deal if that thing went up in flames."
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