Witnesses are sharing their accounts about Tuesday's fire that erupted at a busy southside gas station, which sent people running for safety.
KRIS 6 News spoke with Jose Perez, who was pumping gas across from the San Antonio man. Perez's girlfriend and his 5-year-old niece were in the car.
"I put everything up and then I started hearing splashing sounds," Perez said, "it sounded kind of like he was saying, like everybody get out of the car, get out of the car."
Perez said he looked around the gas pump, and the man was splashing gas all over himself, and then splashed gas on Perez.
"I kind of figured that he was gonna light himself on fire, so I just jumped in my car and kind of like started taking off at the same time," Perez said.
He told his girlfriend to call 911 and tell the operator the man was going to set himself on fire. Perez said as soon as he drove to the left to drive closer to the store, the man pulled out his lighter.
"(He) started lighting the floor on fire and like it was pretty quick, honestly, from one second to the next. I saw the kids running out of the car. They had a cat with them and he like lit himself on fire and it spread pretty quick," the Corpus Christi man said.
Perez said there was a woman and children in the car. He wasn't sure how many, but said they all ran out of the car. Soon after, people with water bottles began pouring water on him.
He recalled seeing someone else with a large water jug who poured water on the man and quickly put the fire out.
As soon as people ran off, that's when the explosion happened.
"There was like multiple pops. I don't know if it was a car or the gas pump itself, but, by the time I was moving the car to the Walmart, to the Whataburger parking lot because I didn't wanna be too close just in case it did start exploding," Perez said.
Perez said his girlfriend tried calling police, but none of her calls were going through. Moments later, someone from the police department reached out to his girlfriend with information.
UPDATE:
Another witness, Erika Saldivar, had just clocked out of her shift from Sports Clips across the street. She watched everything unfold from the T-Mobile store across the street.
"It was a horrible scream, the scream you see in movies where something is going wrong," Saldivar said.
She said she called 911 only to find out the lines were busy.
"They called me right back and I told them where I'm at and they told me they were already coming, the fire department," Saldivar said.
She saw firefighters and medics arrive at the scene and put out the flames.
They took the man to Corpus Christi Medical Center's Bay Area Hospital. His injuries were too severe, and he had to be airlifted to Brooke Army Medical Center's burn unit in San Antonio, where he was listed as in critical condition as of Wednesday afternoon.
We caught up with Police Chief Mike Markle Wednesday morning at the groundbreaking for the city's southside police substation.
Markle said one of his officers was the first on the scene and reassured residents that there was no delay in response.
"A thousand people call in, obviously, there are going to be some that don't get through. It does not mean the call is not being handled," Markle said.
Amongst the chaos, the man's family, who were in the car before it caught fire, are trying to find their cat that bolted to the nearby apartments.
Local cat rescuers like Elizabeth Lilly are stepping in to help find the feline.
"My heart just breaks for those poor children. I can't even imagine what they have been through to see that," Lilly said, "I pray that we can get this cat back to them because that cat means a lot to them, and it's more than just rescuing that animal, it's about these little children, and we need to help these children."
The Corpus Christi Fire Department is investigating what led the man to set the fire, hoping to find answers for everyone involved.
It is also working to get the surveillance video from the Stripes gas station. KRIS 6 tried to get the video as well, but we were told to call their corporate office.
Lilly wants to warn the public if they see the cat not to try to catch it because right now it is in “flight or fight mode”. Instead call her at 361-728-3407.
Listen to Jose Perez's full interview:
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