A suspected drunken driver was hospitalized early this morning after he drove his car into the back of a fire engine responding to a car fire on Interstate 25, authorities say.
The driver was extricated from his Dodge Neon after it became lodged under the fire truck. He was taken to a metro hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The identity of the driver has not been released.
Firefighters were first called to southbound I-25 — about a third of a mile south of East Hampden Avenue — at 2:15 a.m. and found an abandoned car fully engulfed in flames, said Lt. Phil Champagne, Denver fire spokesman.
Firefighters were putting out the blaze when the driver of the Dodge Neon plowed into the rear of the fire engine, Champagne said.
The fire department sent a separate engine to the scene to extricate the driver, he said.
No firefighters were on board the damaged fire truck at the time of the crash, and no firefighters on the ground were injured, Champagne said.
Authorities are investigating how the car fire started and why the vehicle was abandoned on the highway, he said. It is possible that it was a stolen car, he said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
