Pickens County Sheriff’s Office said a woman hoarding gasoline in her car caught on fire after crashing.
On Thursday, a deputy attempted to stop Jessica Gale Patterson in a 2007 Pontiac G6 with a stolen license plate. During the attempted stop, the car crashed and burst into flames, NBC News reported.
“The driver of the Pontiac turned left onto Wolf Creek Road and accelerated the vehicle in an attempt to elude law enforcement,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “The deputy then activated his vehicle’s siren. Before the deputy could complete radio traffic with the Communications center, the driver of the Pontiac lost control of the vehicle leaving the roadway and completely flipping the vehicle.”
Authorities reported that “multiple explosions” could be heard coming from inside the vehicle. Patterson, 28, exited the car and was on fire.
“The deputy pushed Ms. Patterson to the ground in order to put out the flames,” the sheriff’s office stated.
She was transported to the hospital. Her condition is unknown.
The woman told authorities that she was hoarding several fuel containers in the trunk of the Pontiac, which caused the explosions.
Due to the shortage of gas following the hack of the Colonial Pipeline network, there has been a panic among many to buy gas. Colonial is the country’s largest outlet for transporting fuel. Luckily, it has restarted its entire pipeline system and begun product delivery, the outlet reported.
“Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal,” the statement read. “Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during this start-up period. Colonial will move as much gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal.”
