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Chris Pugliese said his training kicked in when he quickly put out a fire in the engine compartment of the tanker truck he had just parked under the fuel-laden wing of a Boeing 767. Now officials at Orlando Sanford International Airport are saying he may have saved hundreds of lives. "He averted a horrible catastrophe," Diane Crews, vice president of airport operations, told the Orlando Sentinel. "Christopher is absolutely a hero to the airport and to all those passengers adjacent to the area." Pugliese, 26, who's only worked as a fuel-truck driver for four months, said it didn't occur to him to run when he saw flames coming out of the truck, which held 10,000 gallons of Jet-A. "They train us how to put out fires," he said. "If I started running it would have been a mess." The 767 already had more than 10,000 gallons aboard from Pugliese's first trip to the aircraft and it was parked beside two charter aircraft already loaded with a combined total of up to 600 passengers. As he parked under the 767, the engine stalled and he saw the flames. He grabbed the fire extinguisher and put the fire out, creating a huge cloud of flame retardant and smoke that really got people's attention in the area. The loaded planes were quickly moved away from the truck in case the fire restarted. Cause hasn't been determined.

good man!!

Give that man a raise.

Truckers, were great!  ;)  ;D

Training for hazardous loads such as a fuel tanker would make you automatically do as he did, good job too.

Could have been very nasty had he legged it.

....Wasn't having a crafty drag was he?..............commoner

....Wasn't having a crafty drag was he?..............commoner

Always cracks me up when people are smoking at the minimum required distance away from C4

C4 won't go off without det cord! You can chuck it on the fire safely

Good man!  Sounds like his quick thinking may have saved a lot of lives.

Reminds me of when I was paintballing at my squad leader's house.  He keeps two scuba tanks in the garage so we can refill tanks inbetween games.  There were four of us in the garage when something on the tank came loose and made a HELL of a lot of noise.  I've never seen 40 year old men move faster in my life! (I shot out of there too! )

C4 won't go off without det cord! You can chuck it on the fire safely

We'll let YOU test this one oh mighty mythbuster!

Always cracks me up when people are smoking at the minimum required distance away from C4

In a previous life, during my time in a blue suit and short haircut, I had the displeasure to have to go to Deccimomannu in Sardinia many, many, many times. The Italian bowser drivers would turn up smoking and continue to smoke whilst refuelling our aircraft. When you pointed this out, they would get the hump, disconnect and leave. In the end we would use the pantographs, the slight lesser of the two evils.

Matt

KUDOS!!! good job with that guy, quick thinking really does pay off! wish we had that good of training at KPNE.

*semi-long winded story to follow*

we have an occasional fuel spill at my airport...typically no more than 2-3 gallons. for some reason, we have a security guard thats been there 17 years, yet STILL pulls within 2-4 feet from the spill to tell us, or point out that the fuel is there on the ground...(before us having a chance to clean it up)..we KNOW..we were the ones that DID IT!.

apparently, he doesnt understand the concept that alternators on cars throw small sparks, engines and exhaust pipes get really hot when sitting still-as security, especially him SLEEPING-is known for. this man has absolutely no common sense, and every time ive seen any fuel spilled, and he pull up, i flail wildly, yelling at him to move (hes from india, originally, yet still doesnt get what flailing about wildly means; 17 years later.)

what bugs me the most is that the latest incident of me yelling at him to move away from the jet-A, is that he reported me to his boss. his boss said i "approached one of his officers with an aggressive posture", and told his guys that theyre authorized to call the police if they feel threatened by one of us.... now...how would YOU react if you had seen a moron pull something like that, with you and a king air 200 or cheyenne III within only a few feet from the wet spot? some people are just too rare to kill, and too dumb to survive...

some people are just too rare to kill, and too dumb to survive...

LOL. Sad but all too true.