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Shared photos: Unsurvivable ball of fire

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A 1981 Chevrolet pickup and a 1997 Mazda Protege collided in Winlock on Friday night. / Courtesy photo by Jay Eyestone

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

After 19-year-old Jay Eyestone called 911 and watched with two drivers as their wrecked vehicles begin to burn, he ran back into his grandparent’s Winlock home and grabbed a camera.

It was about 11:45 p.m. on Friday night when a pickup truck lost control on state Route 505 near Harkins Road and was struck by an oncoming passenger car.

Troy A. Criscola, 19, of Centralia, and Travis M. Thompson, 26, of Winlock, had both gotten out of their vehicles and were standing on the road by the time Eyestone first got outside.

Eyestone said he loaned his phone to one of the drivers so they could call their family and began shooting photos as the fire roared and the tires on the truck exploded one by one.

Though both the Chevrolet pickup and the Mazda Protege were totaled, Criscola was uninjured and Thompson had only a knee injury and a cut on his hand, according to the Washington State Patrol.

One of the two firefighters arriving from Lewis County Fire District 15 described it as a ball of fire with two vehicles fully involved.

Firefighter Patrick Jacobson said he wasn’t sure what caused the vehicles to ignite, but said it was a “pretty good (bad) wreck.”

After the flames were knocked down, Jacobson scanned the interiors to see if they were occupied. They wouldn’t have survived, Jacobson said.

“When I pulled up, there were flames 30 feet in the air,” he said. “There wasn’t much we could have done to save them, if there were people in the cars.”

A trooper cited Criscola, the pickup’s driver, for going too fast.

Eyestone shared these photographs yesterday after returning to school at George Fox University in Newberg, Ore.

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The pickup and car were both destroyed in Friday night's crash in Winlock. / Courtesy photo by Jay Eyestone