Burke County is down an ambulance after one caught fire while transporting a patient to Buncombe County on Monday.
The county posted an account of what happened on its Facebook page. It says a Burke County EMS crew was taking a patient from a Morganton hospital to one in Asheville when, at around 5:30 p.m., the ambulance suffered a catastrophic transmission failure on Interstate 40. It happened near the Bat Cave/Fairview exit, said Burke County EMS Maj. Jason Black.
Black said the drive train blew apart and transmission fluid hit the hot engine and caught fire, burning the engine and cab of the vehicle, Black said.
The Facebook post says the patient and crew weren’t injured and got out of the vehicle. Black said family members were following the ambulance so the patient was put into a family member’s vehicle until a Buncombe County EMS ambulance could arrive on the scene and take the patient to the Asheville hospital.