PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Fire department reports and 911 call recordings obtained by 10 On Your Side are shedding new light on a fiery crash in Portsmouth on Jan 17. They detail efforts made to get the driver out of the burning car, environmental hazards and what 911 callers saw as they reported the crash to police.
These reports came to our newsroom weeks after cell phone video of the crash raised concerns throughout the community, including the wife of the victim, Amber Harris.
Harris is demanding answers from the city about why her husband Calvin stayed trapped in the car for several minutes as first responders worked the scene.
First responders initially told 10 On Your Side the car kept re-igniting, delaying their rescue efforts.
In the 911 call audio, names of the callers and their phone numbers are redacted. The first woman to call the incident in to police identified herself as a postal worker. She said the car that caught fire rammed into the back of her truck, then crashed near a house and caught fire.
“His car is smoking… The car looks like it’s about to blow up,” the woman told dispatchers. “I had to pull up, ma’am, the car looks like it’s about to explode, I don’t know what’s going on with his car.”
She said she had to pull further away because of how thick the smoke became, adding that she could not see what was going on inside the car.
In the audio, she is heard talking about officers pulling up less than two minutes after the 911 call started. The woman told dispatchers that she saw a squad car pull away because of the density of the smoke.
A second 911 caller told dispatchers the car was “spinning out” near the house where it crashed as it caught fire.
The fire reports said several attempts were made to get Calvin Harris out of the driver side window of the car. Neighbors have told 10 On Your Side the door appeared to be jammed shut.
Fire and police officials said flames kept lighting up around the car while they tried to get Harris out. The reports show they set themselves up in a way to let firefighters keep flames off the extraction crews as they pulled Harris out.
When our news team spoke with Amber Harris, she said Calvin is expected to survive, though his recovery from the severe burns is expected to take some time.
The fire department reports also mention an environmental hazard. Forty gallons of gas ran into the storm drains. Public works and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality worked to clean this up according to the reports.
Continue to check WAVY.com for updates.