Nantucket Current | Car fire breaks out on Lovers Lane after truck…

A car fire broke out on Lovers Lane on Tuesday afternoon after a truck left the road and hit a tree.

Nantucket Fire and Police arrived on the dirt road shortly after 3 p.m. and discovered the vehicle fully engulfed in flames. The driver was able to escape the fire under his own power and was taken to Nantucket Cottage Hospital for evaluation, but is not believed to have sustained serious injuries.

A thick black column of smoke rising from the vehicle could be seen for miles around the island before firefighters extinguished the fire.

“He was lucky,” a first responder told the Currentand determined that the driver was probably traveling at 40 miles per hour or more on the dirt road.

While the fire was extinguished, the driver was taken away by ambulance and the truck was towed, Lovers Lane was closed in both directions for over an hour.

Fire Chief Michael Cranson reported on the fire Tuesday evening: “I believe the vehicle had only one occupant. He stated that he was driving the vehicle when he lost control and struck the tree. He was able to get out of the vehicle before we arrived. He was taken to the hospital for evaluation. The brush didn’t worry me too much because the circular driveway went around the trees, shielding it from the rest of the vegetation. We had a hydrant right there and our firefighters were able to put the fire out very quickly with water. The police arrived shortly before us and were very helpful in restraining people and assisting us in deploying our equipment. It was a good team effort, but the vehicle was a total loss.”

_{Click here to watch a video of the fire.}