Fire starts at Mishawaka gas station after driver backs into pump

A driver hit a pump, starting a fire at a Mishawaka gas station on Wednesday afternoon.


It happened at the Marathon station on McKinley and Bittersweet.


An employee told ABC 57 they had to shut off the fuel lines immediately since there are two other gas stations on that street corner.


Employees said when the customer at fault went to leave, he hit the pump and uprooted the entire dispenser from the ground.


The employee says she was in the backroom when this happened.  All of a sudden, she heard an explosion.


"He pulled right up to my front door -- panicking, terrified.  'Did you see what I did? Did you hear that?' I said I heard that and at the same time I was looking out and could see the flames from the pump," said Charity Bruggner, a Marathon gas station employee.


No one else was getting gas at the time and, thankfully, no one was hurt.


Bruggner said that at one point the flames were about six-feet high! "They calmed down pretty quickly once we shut the power off. I was amazed, too, at how fast police and the fire department responded. They were here almost instantly," she said.


She also predicted that no one will be able to purchase gas there until late Wednesday evening.


Crews were there around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday evening, picking up the broken dispenser.

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