Lake Dillon firefighters found an incoherent Illinois man suffering hypothermia and wearing only his underwear Tuesday morning, hours after an unusual car crash.
The man was not named. His Toyota truck left the road about 12 miles north of Silverthorne, traveled down a family’s drivewayand around their house before striking their 500-gallon propane tank.
The family who lived in the house told investigators they lost heat at about 1 a.m., although they didn’t figure out why until morning. About 8:30 a.m. they spotted the wrecked truck and their propane tank at the bottom of the hill.
Firefighters found the man stripped to his boxer shorts and crouched in some willows nearby. He had advanced stages of hypothermia, as the temperature reached 3 degrees overnight, according to Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue.
Rescuers put the man in a heated sleeping bag and hauled him up the embankment in a litter. The man was airlifted to St. Anthony’s Central Hospital in Denver.
People suffering from advance hypothermia can act irrationally, including taking off their clothes despite freezing conditions, the fire department said.
