Around 8:00 a.m., the employees of General Heating and Air Conditioning heard what they thought was an explosion.  When they ran outside, they saw that a car had crashed into a utility pole, and a woman was trapped inside.  The employees did what they could to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, broke the car window with a rock, and pulled the woman to safety.  Her name has not yet been released, but she was taken to the Mercy Hospital ER.

Around 8:30 today, I was on my way to work and encountered the uncomfortable fact that all the traffic lights were out on my busy thoroughfare.  A few minutes later, I saw why:  a car was in flames.  It had crashed into an electric pole and natural gas meter, igniting the car, the meter and the electric pole.

The entire right lane of Hwy. 102 between 8th St. and 2nd St. in Rogers, Arkansas, was stacked with police cars, fire trucks and electric company (Southwest AEP) big rigs.  Traffic was backed up for blocks.

What a great story.  I parked my car, jumped out and ran in the rain over to the scene of the accident, and spent the next two hours freezing, getting soaked and making one of the few hard-news videos I have ever made.