Mount Kembla: Car catches fires after hitting power pole
A person has died at Mount Kembla near Wollongong, after a car crashed into a power pole and burst into flames.
Illawarra Star
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A person has died after a in a fiery crash after a car ploughed into a power pole in Mount Kembla on Friday afternoon.
Emergency services were called to Cordeaux Road just before 3.30pm, after reports a car had careered off the road, and collided with a power pole.
Upon arrival, emergency services personnel found a dark coloured sedan fully engulfed in flames, the driver still inside.
Tragically the person, believed to be a male, died at the scene. He is yet to be formally identified.
Wollongong Police District inspector Angela Burnell said investigations into the cause of the incident were continuing, but confirmed the scene had been “destroyed by fire”.
“As a result of the collision the car has been engulfed in flames,” she said.
“Emergency services were on scene really quickly and managed to extinguish the fire in rapid time so it didn’t spread anywhere else.”
Inspector Burnell said witnesses called to alert police to the incident, and it’s understood some of them tried to render assistance to the driver of the car.
“It’s an exceptionally tragic incident and emergency services naturally don’t like these sorts of incidents occurring,” she said.
“It’s very early in the investigations so I’m not certain who did what, but there were certainly people nearby who assisted.”
A witness who saw the horrific incident unold said one man ran to the car as it burst into flames, and tried to smash the driver’s side window with a rock.
Fire and Rescue NSW Illawarra commander Greg Purvis said he fire took at least 30 minutes to extinguish and that the origin of the blaze was still under investigation.
A hazmat team was also called in after the crash to clean up, after firefighting foam and fuel spilt into a nearby creek.
Cordeaux Road at Mount Kembla remains closed in both directions, with local traffic diversions in place at William James Drive to the east and Stones Road to the west.
Power in the area remains affected and is expected to be out for some time.