"It picked me up off my feet and I remember just spinning around like a rag doll," said Lt. Mike Stanley.
"It sent us in different directions, said Capt. Doug Neisen. I know Mike blew the opposite direction of me. I blew west, he blew east.
The explosion happened Tuesday night at a construction site. A huge earth- moving tractor caught fire. One of the tractor's eight-foot high tires blew up and sent the men flying
A second tire exploded moments later. When I kind of picked myself up, I was on all fours and I looked back to try to find them and the next explosion went off and the second explosion was absolutely the loudest thing I've ever heard in my life," said Neisen.
The ball of fire blew off the firefighters' helmets and caused second-degree burns, cuts and fractures. Two other firefighters, Todd Baker and Randy Rester, suffered similar injures. The four men agree that they are lucky they weren't killed. Authorities still aren't sure what caused the tractor tires to explode after they put out a small engine fire. They are continuing to investigate. They said this incident is unprecedented. The battalion chief at Station 10 plans to publish an article about the accident in a fire fighting trade journal.
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